Apple Is Said to Be Rethinking Strategy on Self-Driving Cars
The Fresh York Times
September 9, 2016
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is rethinking what it plans to do about self-driving cars, just as other big tech companies show up ready to plow ahead with rivaling efforts.
In a retrenchment of one of its most ambitious initiatives, Apple has shuttered parts of its self-driving car project and laid off dozens of employees, according to three people briefed on the budge who were not permitted to speak about it publicly.
The job cuts are the latest sign of trouble with Apple’s car initiative. The company has added resources to the project — code-named Titan — over the last two years, but it has struggled to make progress. And in July, the company brought in Bob Mansfield, a very regarded Apple veteran, to take over the effort.
Apple is not the only big tech company pursuing autonomous driving technology. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has tested self-driving cars on the road for years, but its concentrate has been on designing the underlying software and systems to make that technology work. Tesla has a self-driving feature within its cars that has come under scrutiny in latest months after a fatal accident was connected to its use.
Separately, Uber, in a limited test in Pittsburgh next week, plans to commence picking up passengers in self-driving cars. Last month, Uber also acquired the start-up Otto for about $700 million, a purchase that brought with it some of the top minds in robotics and autonomous technology.
And automakers like Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler have all said they expect to put a number of self-driving vehicles on the road in five years or less.
But Apple has stood out from the others mainly — as is often the case with the company — for its secrecy. Apple has never acknowledged that it is working on a car, tho’ Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has said the automotive industry is undergoing a drastic switch and, earlier this year, he seemed to confirm the existence of the car project at its annual shareholders meeting.
“Do you reminisce when you were a kid, and Christmas Eve, it was so arousing, you weren’t sure what was going to be downstairs?” Mr. Cook said at the meeting. “Well, it’s going to be Christmas Eve for a while.”
Apple employees were told that the layoffs were part of a “reboot” of the car project, the people briefed on it said. An Apple spokesman declined to comment.
Under Mr. Mansfield, Apple switched the concentrate of the project, shifting from an emphasis on designing and producing an automobile to building out the underlying technology for an autonomous vehicle. Bloomberg earlier reported the strategy switch.
Electrical cars rely not on the internal combustion engine, but on technologies more prevalent in the consumer electronics world: batteries, sensors and software. In addition, self-driving cars could switch the traditional notions of public transportation and car ownership.
Apple began looking earnestly into building an electrical car about two years ago. It expanded the project quickly, poaching experts in battery technology and so-called machine vision, as well as veterans from the automobile industry.
The team also pulled in staff members from other divisions across Apple, growing to more than 1,000 employees in about eighteen months. But as the project grew rapidly, it encountered a number of problems, and people working on it struggled to explain what Apple could bring to a self-driving car that other companies could not, according to the people briefed on the project.
Steven Zadesky, a longtime Apple employee primarily charged with heading the car effort, left the company for private reasons this year. His departure opened the door for Mr. Mansfield, who worked closely with Apple’s co-founder, Steve Jobs, but left the company’s executive team in 2013.
He had all but retired from Apple except for the occasional visit to the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. He was coaxed into coming back to oversee the project, which could represent a fresh market for Apple as sales of its flagship iPhone are slowing.
Apple has also made some headway in the space. The company has a number of fully autonomous vehicles in the middle of testing, using limited operating routes in a closed environment, according to people briefed on the company’s plans. Like other companies in the space, that technology is likely a number of years away from watching mainstream consumer use, they added.
Katie Benner and Mike Isaac contributed reporting.
Apple Is Said to Be Rethinking Strategy on Self-Driving Cars
The Fresh York Times
September 9, 2016
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is rethinking what it plans to do about self-driving cars, just as other big tech companies show up ready to plow ahead with contesting efforts.
In a retrenchment of one of its most ambitious initiatives, Apple has shuttered parts of its self-driving car project and laid off dozens of employees, according to three people briefed on the budge who were not permitted to speak about it publicly.
The job cuts are the latest sign of trouble with Apple’s car initiative. The company has added resources to the project — code-named Titan — over the last two years, but it has struggled to make progress. And in July, the company brought in Bob Mansfield, a very regarded Apple veteran, to take over the effort.
Apple is not the only big tech company pursuing autonomous driving technology. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has tested self-driving cars on the road for years, but its concentrate has been on designing the underlying software and systems to make that technology work. Tesla has a self-driving feature within its cars that has come under scrutiny in latest months after a fatal accident was connected to its use.
Separately, Uber, in a limited test in Pittsburgh next week, plans to commence picking up passengers in self-driving cars. Last month, Uber also acquired the start-up Otto for about $700 million, a purchase that brought with it some of the top minds in robotics and autonomous technology.
And automakers like Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler have all said they expect to put a number of self-driving vehicles on the road in five years or less.
But Apple has stood out from the others mainly — as is often the case with the company — for its secrecy. Apple has never acknowledged that it is working on a car, however Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has said the automotive industry is undergoing a drastic switch and, earlier this year, he seemed to confirm the existence of the car project at its annual shareholders meeting.
“Do you reminisce when you were a kid, and Christmas Eve, it was so arousing, you weren’t sure what was going to be downstairs?” Mr. Cook said at the meeting. “Well, it’s going to be Christmas Eve for a while.”
Apple employees were told that the layoffs were part of a “reboot” of the car project, the people briefed on it said. An Apple spokesman declined to comment.
Under Mr. Mansfield, Apple switched the concentrate of the project, shifting from an emphasis on designing and producing an automobile to building out the underlying technology for an autonomous vehicle. Bloomberg earlier reported the strategy switch.
Electrified cars rely not on the internal combustion engine, but on technologies more prevalent in the consumer electronics world: batteries, sensors and software. In addition, self-driving cars could switch the traditional notions of public transportation and car ownership.
Apple began looking gravely into building an electrical car about two years ago. It expanded the project quickly, poaching experts in battery technology and so-called machine vision, as well as veterans from the automobile industry.
The team also pulled in staff members from other divisions across Apple, growing to more than 1,000 employees in about eighteen months. But as the project grew rapidly, it encountered a number of problems, and people working on it struggled to explain what Apple could bring to a self-driving car that other companies could not, according to the people briefed on the project.
Steven Zadesky, a longtime Apple employee originally charged with heading the car effort, left the company for individual reasons this year. His departure opened the door for Mr. Mansfield, who worked closely with Apple’s co-founder, Steve Jobs, but left the company’s executive team in 2013.
He had all but retired from Apple except for the occasional visit to the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. He was coaxed into coming back to oversee the project, which could represent a fresh market for Apple as sales of its flagship iPhone are slowing.
Apple has also made some headway in the space. The company has a number of fully autonomous vehicles in the middle of testing, using limited operating routes in a closed environment, according to people briefed on the company’s plans. Like other companies in the space, that technology is likely a number of years away from watching mainstream consumer use, they added.
Katie Benner and Mike Isaac contributed reporting.