"accelerate the path to cars being appliances that solve people's problems."
Then go back to Apple and build this...
The car of the future is already here. It's called a Smartphone. Think about it. If you were to clear the slate, look at the modern world and ask yourself, how would I design a transportation system given existing and soon-to-come technologies, like autonomous driving, real-time availability scheduling. Route optimization, etc, no way you'd conclude there should be a car, or two, in every garage. You'd create a technology/software infrastructure to allow individuals to call up the transportation they need (car, truck, van, etc) on-demand. And it would show up wherever they are, or wherever they are going to be, when it's needed. You'd be able to schedule transportation in advance, like the airport shuttles of yesteryear that you'd schedule a week in advance. Über pretty much killed that business, I expect.
Or schedule recurring transportation, such as to take the kids to soccer practice and back. In this case the transportation technology system might suggest a shared van service, that knows the schedules for local after school sports practice and offers up and constructs pick-up and drop-off routes based upon participation; a regular route to gather up the kids and deliver them. Accommodation for security will be considered when children are being transported without accompanying parents, such as real-time tracking and a constant open line of communication, both audio and video streaming from the vehicle to parent's smartphones.
Indeed. That's how they were represented in Quantic Dream's Nomad Soul ( a video game with David Bowie, yes sir) back in '99.
Omikron! i remember that game, the in game bowie shows were kinda cool.
"accelerate the path to cars being appliances that solve people's problems."
Then go back to Apple and build this...
The car of the future is already here. It's called a Smartphone. Think about it. If you were to clear the slate, look at the modern world and ask yourself, how would I design a transportation system given existing and soon-to-come technologies, like autonomous driving, real-time availability scheduling. ...
You make lots of good points there...
...but one thing you forgot to include for the car of the future was the manual override so that our hero can save the day and escape the evil AI robots that are trying to take over the planet!
(In all seriousness, that really is a pretty good rundown).
6 months ago I mentioned I thought Chris Lattner's new position at Tesla was likely a poor fit which drove some Apple fanboys to go nuts -- they could not believe that any of their gods could maybe not be suited for everything and anything. From what I can figure out from his education and experience his experience of course is more in the area of compilers and tools.... and no real experience in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. The person in charge should be able to weigh in on the issues at hand (at least on the development side) and while they don't necessarily have to get down and dirty, they have to have some authority when it comes down to settling internal design conflicts etc. He was entering the position without necessarily having a #2 that he know would be the "to go" person if he needed backup -- so it would be just as easy to make the wrong choice of who to pick.
It is now 6 months later and things did not work out. It does not mean that Chris Lattner is not talented. I have always been very impressed with the LLVM stuff.... Found Swift a big improvement on their existing tools, but found that he was a little hard headed when it came to future Swift direction.... I understand it to a certain point, but found a lack of understanding of certain functional programming paradigm suggestions - a little disheartening.
Returning to Apple is of course probably an option, but maybe not to the location he was and not to the Machine Learning / AI to a level he might feel his experience demands. When you enter a new field, it is best to enter behind others that are more knowledgeable in that area and trust that your ability to learn and become invaluable quickly will pull you back up to the position that you feel your experience would afford you. People have been moved up -- and they are for all we can see from the outside doing just as good a job at this point than before... as such he might not come back and wield exactly the same iconic status as before.
It is really up in the air as to whether he can find a position that suits both him and Apple.
Now he is a smart person with very valuable experience in areas of interest to many companies -- so I have no doubt he will land on his feet and excel in the future.... it might just be immediate since there are some adjustments that will have to be accepted and internalize. I expect him to have received a fairly nice a cushy package -- as he was a VP position and he was actively poached.... but we will never know.
Chris should just go back to Apple's Swift team or perhaps work on the Autonomous Systems effort.
I have a gut feeling that the Tesla software is a bowl of spaghetti in desperate need of a rewrite. Not to worry, Tesla can license a Car OS from Apple soon. Tesla needs to get rid of that dated console UI anyway.
Is Lattner's expertise in AI or machine learning? Tesla released a statement saying Lattner wasn't the right fit which says to me his skills didn't translate that well to autonomous/self-driving car systems.
Ah, a company "..released a statement..." on a personnel matter, so it must be true. You can take that to the bank.
Chris should just go back to Apple's Swift team or perhaps work on the Autonomous Systems effort.
I have a gut feeling that the Tesla software is a bowl of spaghetti in desperate need of a rewrite. Not to worry, Tesla can license a Car OS from Apple soon. Tesla needs to get rid of that dated console UI anyway.
Is Lattner's expertise in AI or machine learning? Tesla released a statement saying Lattner wasn't the right fit which says to me his skills didn't translate that well to autonomous/self-driving car systems.
Ah, a company "..released a statement..." on a personnel matter, so it must be true. You can take that to the bank.
A company releasing a statement about apple being a tesla graveyard (generic) is just bloviating....
A company releasing a statement about an individual.... lets say Chris Lattner decided to quit and Tesla saying he was let go because he was not a proper fit -- you have just potentially made the departure much more expensive.
It is why most times they say "The executive left for personal reasons" - when in actual fact he was escorted to the door and told never to set foot in again....
I read into the Tesla comment a certain amount of anger and frustration with the fact that Chris Lattner did not work out -- though a good part of that is hiring the wrong person for that position, and part of that is just unrealistic targets.... though for bleeding edge companies that are in a death battle with others all battling on new potentially lucrative markets.... not having very aggressive targets.... may just mean that in the future you have to get rid of lots of people after failure. Tesla is still effectively a startup and if you don't like working in a pressure cooker -- it is probably best to avoid startups.
high level transplant always is a risk preposition. you don't want Peter's principle to be apply to you. Based on the stanford U partner with Tesla, look like change direction to deep learning and GAN (Generative Adversarial Nets) may be in the new game plan for Tesla. AI is still in its infancy - although the concept was old, but hardware and computing power just recently allow to flourish. Hopefully, Chris will find better suited position to utilize his talent and professional life. 6 month is not too long to be absence in some area... longer than 10 month, you might have trouble to catch up... high tech is very curl place... timing is everything, today's talent could be tomorrow's burden. Best wish and all the best for his next endeavor in a greener place (spaceship?).
Man -- talk about a bad signal about the state of software development inside Tesla!
Maybe he should go work at GM and act as a liaison to Apple...
Lattner makes it sound like he left, Tesla makes it sound like he was fired.
Same thing at that level.
Anyways this just confirms in my mind that Tesla is one screwed up company. The high turn over rate we see at this company is a negative indicator on management quality and frankly software quality.
Lacking any information to the contrary, I'll just assume Lattner didn't like stepping into a new role or he had a style of work that clashed with the long-established culture at Tesla.
Comments
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tesla-hires-ai-expert-to-help-lead-team-in-charge-of-self-driving-software-2017-06-21?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo
You make lots of good points there...
...but one thing you forgot to include for the car of the future was the manual override so that our hero can save the day and escape the evil AI robots that are trying to take over the planet!
(In all seriousness, that really is a pretty good rundown).
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/09/elon-musk-apple-graveyard-fired-tesla-staff
It is now 6 months later and things did not work out. It does not mean that Chris Lattner is not talented. I have always been very impressed with the LLVM stuff.... Found Swift a big improvement on their existing tools, but found that he was a little hard headed when it came to future Swift direction.... I understand it to a certain point, but found a lack of understanding of certain functional programming paradigm suggestions - a little disheartening.
Returning to Apple is of course probably an option, but maybe not to the location he was and not to the Machine Learning / AI to a level he might feel his experience demands. When you enter a new field, it is best to enter behind others that are more knowledgeable in that area and trust that your ability to learn and become invaluable quickly will pull you back up to the position that you feel your experience would afford you. People have been moved up -- and they are for all we can see from the outside doing just as good a job at this point than before... as such he might not come back and wield exactly the same iconic status as before.
It is really up in the air as to whether he can find a position that suits both him and Apple.
Now he is a smart person with very valuable experience in areas of interest to many companies -- so I have no doubt he will land on his feet and excel in the future.... it might just be immediate since there are some adjustments that will have to be accepted and internalize. I expect him to have received a fairly nice a cushy package -- as he was a VP position and he was actively poached.... but we will never know.
A company releasing a statement about an individual.... lets say Chris Lattner decided to quit and Tesla saying he was let go because he was not a proper fit -- you have just potentially made the departure much more expensive.
It is why most times they say "The executive left for personal reasons" - when in actual fact he was escorted to the door and told never to set foot in again....
I read into the Tesla comment a certain amount of anger and frustration with the fact that Chris Lattner did not work out -- though a good part of that is hiring the wrong person for that position, and part of that is just unrealistic targets.... though for bleeding edge companies that are in a death battle with others all battling on new potentially lucrative markets.... not having very aggressive targets.... may just mean that in the future you have to get rid of lots of people after failure. Tesla is still effectively a startup and if you don't like working in a pressure cooker -- it is probably best to avoid startups.