You just have to find the humor here - this article is here about it being a disaster and there is another recent article about Apple reaping rewards for years to come, i thought i saw it say giant rewards but that seems to have disappeared. Seems more like a giant waste of time. I don’t think Tim Cook is a car guy, he may know just about nothing about the auto industry. He would have to release control and get out of the way, giving full control to somebody to run such a big project. Did he?
But, how can $10 billion be spent and have nothing on the road to show for it ???!!! I’m really amazed if that number is true. I think that real car companies have been founded and actually made cars while having far less than $10 billion dollars to start with. LOL
$10bn gone, no Apple Car, nothing. Who’s head is gonna roll? Insane expensive hobby…..
It's not at all a hobby. It's called R&D. All R&D is a combination of Research and Development. Those who work in R&D can usually define what proportion of their work is on one side or the other. Some R&D work is pure research, Big R - No D, with no expectation that any sellable product will come out of the project at its completion. But a hell of a lot of intellectual property (IP), new discoveries, and proof of concept prototypes at various levels of granularity may result that have immense value to the company's future. Then there are what some folks call Big R - Little D projects that involve lots of discovery and IP capture and perhaps a significant working prototype at completion. Likewise, Little R - Big D projects that may extend almost-working or working prototypes into systems that can be engineered, refined, and manufactured for use by real customers. And of course there is pure Development.
No two R&D projects are the same and the weighting between the R and the D can be infinitely variable. Some projects start out with one mix of R&D but end up settling for something that is balanced differently. For companies like Apple who are financing their own R&D any change in the balance is up to them, but you can rest assured that Apple will definitely capture real value from what they've invested. The artifacts of the R part is their's to exploit whenever the time or circumstances present themselves. Is there a little bit of making lemonade going on here? Sure, but there are so many variables involved with any R&D project and at some point you have to make the call to get out with what you can before you end up going down a rat hole or money pit, or the ultimate boneheaded move, trying to save face by stumbling along and delaying until all of the time and money has been exhausted and you still have nothing to show for it. This behavior is pretty much called living a lie.
Like Steve Jobs always alluded to, sometimes you're going to be graded based on what you don't do rather than what you do.
Edit: If you need to see an example of what happens when a doomed project, one that should have pulled the plug much sooner, stumbles along here you go: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2024-29
But that's a paltry penalty compared to the destruction of hopes and dreams of the people affected.
I own a Tesla and have almost the latest ‘Full Self Driving’ firmware. (The latest has only been released to a few hundred people.)
First I’ll say that I’m not here to defend or make excuses Elon and I’m no Tesla fanboy. My Model Y has been a great car for the 3 years I’ve had it but it’s also got it’s flaws.
As far as self-driving goes, no one has solved it yet. Different companies are taking different approaches with varying degrees of success. Tesla is no exception. On the interstate, the basic autopilot that comes with all Teslas is nearly flawless. I use it to drive from Minneapolis to Grand Forks and the the only thing I need to do is tug the wheel once in a while to satisfy the nanny-nag. In terms of SAE autonomy levels it is technically level 2. Many people have guessed/speculated why Tesla hasn’t expanded it to Level 3 but my suspicion is it’s a combination of legal/regulatory/insurance issues and a desire to solve the full autonomy puzzle for all roads, not just interstates.
I’ve been using the FSD beta software for the last 3 years. In that time it has made huge advances but still makes some baffling moves. I use it on the majority of my drives around town. I know how it behaves and at this point it’s fairly predictable in how it will misbehave. In the end, it probably does about 90-95% of my driving for me disengaging and taking over for the rest. It’s good, and for me it makes driving more relaxing but it’s not good enough to be more than a supervised assist at this point. Whether it will in the future remains to be seen but beta is a very accurate categorization in its current state.
So Apple threw away $10 billion on it’s car program. What a waste. I never understood what the point was and now I’m struggling to understand how they could waste that much money on a program that never made sense. If I were a shareholder I’d be pissed.
I've been calling BS on self-driving cars since I first heard about it. Yes, driving can be easy 99.5% of the time; it's the other 0.5% that cameras and computers will never solve on existing roads with human drivers and pedestrians.
And "AI" is the next bubble waiting to burst. For important issues involving politics or public policy, we can't even agree on the same set of facts. Google's "artificial intelligence" couldn't even produce a picture of the Founding Fathers without introducing woke BS into the results.
Autonomous driving is currently the best it’s ever been AND the worst it will ever be. It will only get better, both due to additional processing power, advancements in the AI and ML models applied, and with increasing amounts of more detailed data. Another couple of cycles in each of these areas and we’ll be there.
We will not "be there" eg having self driving cars (no human intervention required or permitted), in my lifetime (maybe, hopefully, 20 more years.) I'll change my mind if/when we see fully autonomous airliners that people actually buy tickets to be on.
You just have to find the humor here - this article is here about it being a disaster and there is another recent article about Apple reaping rewards for years to come, i thought i saw it say giant rewards but that seems to have disappeared. Seems more like a giant waste of time. I don’t think Tim Cook is a car guy, he may know just about nothing about the auto industry. He would have to release control and get out of the way, giving full control to somebody to run such a big project. Did he?
But, how can $10 billion be spent and have nothing on the road to show for it ???!!! I’m really amazed if that number is true. I think that real car companies have been founded and actually made cars while having far less than $10 billion dollars to start with. LOL
Apple spent only 10 billion dollars over 10 years that's a bargain compared to Microsoft or Google wild spending over the years.
* The big Acquisition losers of Microsoft Over the years…..
Web TV $425 million dollars.
Hotmail. $500 million dollars.
Vizio $1.4 billion dollars.
Titus communication $1 billion dollars.
Navison $1.4 billion dollars.
*aQuantive $6.4 billion dollars wrote off in 2012 i.e. (a completewrite off shortly after acquiring)
*Skype Technologies $8.5 billion dollars.
*Yammer $1.2 billion dollars.
*Nokia $7.2 billion dollars.
*LinkedIn $26.5 billion dollars
*Git hub $7.2 billion dollars.
*ZeniMax Media 8.1 billion dollars.
*Nuance Communications to $20 billion dollars.
*Activision $69 billion dollars (Biggest in Microsoft history)
Most of Microsoft acquisitions were complete right offs. You certainly did not see most of the so-call tech implemented into their finished software i.e., their desktop OS or their web services division software in any meaningful way that justified the inflated prices that they paid for these boondoggles.
Many of the purchases were impulse buys in short. Microsoft was flailing-thrashing around aimlessly searching for an answer to Apple’s rising dominance in tech most were fad companies at the time they were acquired,, and essentially Microsoft was bailing out a failing sinking ship.
Is AI anywhere in that Menagerie probably one or two?
Apple chose by necessity through the acquisition of PA Semi Intrinsity and Anobit which was a mere $750 million dollars, to build their own CPUs for their smartphone, Mac computers, iPad, Apple Watch.
Apple (a few years earlier) spent just 400 million dollars for Next computer and picked up Steve Jobs in the process, one of the best CEOs in American history, were bargains compared to Microsoft’s buying a dinosaur/boat anchor like Activision.
A little history goes a long way to understanding why Project Titan was cancelled. Back in 2016, CNET (as did many other tech publications) published their article titled " Apple invests $1 billion in China's Uber competitor to "learn more about the market". It was speculated that Apple's Project Titan was NOT an attempt to build a "Tesla" clone or follow Tesla's business model but rather would use their Apple designed EV self driving "transportation pod" that would form the basis for a car-sharing service that would be used by urban citizens around the world. Unfortunately, that car sharing business model never became viable and so the need for ANOTHER EV automobile maker just selling basic transportation became an untenable business model for Apple.
What I had hoped Apple would tackle was an end-to-end system that includes the app for ride hailing and scheduling, adding your personally-owned autonomous vehicle to the taxi fleet, dispatch of the combined fleet, and really good route optimization.
Rental companies like Hertz could schedule some of their inventory in and out of the fleet, as could dedicated taxi services, and individual vehicle owners. The requirement would be that the vehicle have CarPlay; a future version that would collect information from each car, including estimated remaining range, GPS coordinates, and scheduled time left in service for that day. With this information Apple could figure out which car to dispatch, ensuring the car has sufficient remaining range and scheduled service time to complete the ride and still be able to get to a charging station or depot, if needed.
Apple could become a master global dispatch service, interfacing between vehicle owners and customers. The service could support both human-driven vehicles and autonomous vehicles, as long as the vehicle included an appropriate version of CarPlay. This would alleviate Apple from liability as either the human driver or the car’s own autonomous system would be responsible for the actual driving. Apple would only be sending it destination instructions and details about the passengers who hailed the ride, akin to “go to pier 39 to pick up Jane Doe, to drive her to the Presidio.” Apple could take a small cut of each ride, never having built or bought a single vehicle and never having developed autonomous driving technology.
I don't think there was any chance of Apple being a glorified taxi-Uber company, with "a small cut of each ride"--does that sound like Apple on anything? No. All the aggravation, none of the profit.
I own a Tesla and have almost the latest ‘Full Self Driving’ firmware. (The latest has only been released to a few hundred people.)
First I’ll say that I’m not here to defend or make excuses Elon and I’m no Tesla fanboy. My Model Y has been a great car for the 3 years I’ve had it but it’s also got it’s flaws.
As far as self-driving goes, no one has solved it yet. Different companies are taking different approaches with varying degrees of success. Tesla is no exception. On the interstate, the basic autopilot that comes with all Teslas is nearly flawless. I use it to drive from Minneapolis to Grand Forks and the the only thing I need to do is tug the wheel once in a while to satisfy the nanny-nag. In terms of SAE autonomy levels it is technically level 2. Many people have guessed/speculated why Tesla hasn’t expanded it to Level 3 but my suspicion is it’s a combination of legal/regulatory/insurance issues and a desire to solve the full autonomy puzzle for all roads, not just interstates.
I’ve been using the FSD beta software for the last 3 years. In that time it has made huge advances but still makes some baffling moves. I use it on the majority of my drives around town. I know how it behaves and at this point it’s fairly predictable in how it will misbehave. In the end, it probably does about 90-95% of my driving for me disengaging and taking over for the rest. It’s good, and for me it makes driving more relaxing but it’s not good enough to be more than a supervised assist at this point. Whether it will in the future remains to be seen but beta is a very accurate categorization in its current state.
The problem with a EV's will be one of insurance on the road and in the house (garage), the insurance industry already is canceling policies across the country in beach/hillside areas and they are not going to replace your house/condo/apartment in the future because your EV when up in flames inside of your garage (check those new waivers in your policy at renewal time). Self driving coverage yea.. sure.
I was thinking about downsizing into a condo/townhouse not anymore can't afford the risk of my neighbor parking their EV inside their garage and taking out my living space sticking with a detached house.
This outcome was patently obvious to many from Day 1.
At this point, Tesla has won this contest hands-down. By the time Apple finally got there -- even if they could -- there would be no way for it to catch up to a company like Tesla.
Apple made the smart decision here, to not fall into the sunk cost fallacy and continue to throw good money after bad. That said, it's most definitely a huge pie on Cook's face.
There will be plenty of positives from this development. Maybe new tech but ultimately had it been released it could have been billions more of a disaster and a ruined brand. Better to cut your losses than proceed.
I own a Tesla and have almost the latest ‘Full Self Driving’ firmware. (The latest has only been released to a few hundred people.)
First I’ll say that I’m not here to defend or make excuses Elon and I’m no Tesla fanboy. My Model Y has been a great car for the 3 years I’ve had it but it’s also got it’s flaws.
As far as self-driving goes, no one has solved it yet. Different companies are taking different approaches with varying degrees of success. Tesla is no exception. On the interstate, the basic autopilot that comes with all Teslas is nearly flawless. I use it to drive from Minneapolis to Grand Forks and the the only thing I need to do is tug the wheel once in a while to satisfy the nanny-nag. In terms of SAE autonomy levels it is technically level 2. Many people have guessed/speculated why Tesla hasn’t expanded it to Level 3 but my suspicion is it’s a combination of legal/regulatory/insurance issues and a desire to solve the full autonomy puzzle for all roads, not just interstates.
I’ve been using the FSD beta software for the last 3 years. In that time it has made huge advances but still makes some baffling moves. I use it on the majority of my drives around town. I know how it behaves and at this point it’s fairly predictable in how it will misbehave. In the end, it probably does about 90-95% of my driving for me disengaging and taking over for the rest. It’s good, and for me it makes driving more relaxing but it’s not good enough to be more than a supervised assist at this point. Whether it will in the future remains to be seen but beta is a very accurate categorization in its current state.
The problem with a EV's will be one of insurance on the road and in the house (garage), the insurance industry already is canceling policies across the country in beach/hillside areas and they are not going to replace your house/condo/apartment in the future because your EV when up in flames inside of your garage (check those new waivers in your policy at renewal time). Self driving coverage yea.. sure.
I was thinking about downsizing into a condo/townhouse not anymore can't afford the risk of my neighbor parking their EV inside their garage and taking out my living space sticking with a detached house.
now you're repeating the 'alternative facts' from Fox. The incidence of fires in Tesla's is on the order of 10x lower than other vehicles and I've seen zero reports of people having issues with insurance.
Now collision and liability insurance related to driving assist features is a different issue that will need to be solved.
This outcome was patently obvious to many from Day 1.
At this point, Tesla has won this contest hands-down. By the time Apple finally got there -- even if they could -- there would be no way for it to catch up to a company like Tesla.
Apple made the smart decision here, to not fall into the sunk cost fallacy and continue to throw good money after bad. That said, it's most definitely a huge pie on Cook's face.
I don't get why anyone thinks there's a "contest" or race" or something nebulous to catch up to. If [Anyone] comes out with a competent EV, they are on the same virtual footing as Tesla. Do you expect that people would only buy Teslas because they start with a larger share? Or that only Tesla can manufacture an EV (setting aside their continual quality issues)? Remember there were a lot of Baker Electric cars sold in the early days too.
It's a new industry with a lot of room in it. Do you really think Honda and Toyota are going to have a problem selling EVs when they commit to those models? I don't think so. Mercedes and BMW as well. Porsche and Audi maybe not because...VW.
Or are you guys saying that no ICE manufacturer is going to come into the EV business and...so to speak? Dangerous thinking there. We have well over a hundred years of automotive manufacturing and sales to draw on. Is a Chevy model released in March at a disadvantage to a Ford released in February, or a model released in 2023 versus 2024?
You just have to find the humor here - this article is here about it being a disaster and there is another recent article about Apple reaping rewards for years to come, i thought i saw it say giant rewards but that seems to have disappeared. Seems more like a giant waste of time. I don’t think Tim Cook is a car guy, he may know just about nothing about the auto industry. He would have to release control and get out of the way, giving full control to somebody to run such a big project. Did he?
But, how can $10 billion be spent and have nothing on the road to show for it ???!!! I’m really amazed if that number is true. I think that real car companies have been founded and actually made cars while having far less than $10 billion dollars to start with. LOL
Apple spent only 10 billion dollars over 10 years that's a bargain compared to Microsoft or Google wild spending over the years.
* The big Acquisition losers of Microsoft Over the years…..
Web TV $425 million dollars.
Hotmail. $500 million dollars.
Vizio $1.4 billion dollars.
Titus communication $1 billion dollars.
Navison $1.4 billion dollars.
*aQuantive $6.4 billion dollars wrote off in 2012 i.e. (a completewrite off shortly after acquiring)
*Skype Technologies $8.5 billion dollars.
*Yammer $1.2 billion dollars.
*Nokia $7.2 billion dollars.
*LinkedIn $26.5 billion dollars
*Git hub $7.2 billion dollars.
*ZeniMax Media 8.1 billion dollars.
*Nuance Communications to $20 billion dollars.
*Activision $69 billion dollars (Biggest in Microsoft history)
Most of Microsoft acquisitions were complete right offs. You certainly did not see most of the so-call tech implemented into their finished software i.e., their desktop OS or their web services division software in any meaningful way that justified the inflated prices that they paid for these boondoggles.
Many of the purchases were impulse buys in short. Microsoft was flailing-thrashing around aimlessly searching for an answer to Apple’s rising dominance in tech most were fad companies at the time they were acquired,, and essentially Microsoft was bailing out a failing sinking ship.
Is AI anywhere in that Menagerie probably one or two?
Apple chose by necessity through the acquisition of PA Semi Intrinsity and Anobit which was a mere $750 million dollars, to build their own CPUs for their smartphone, Mac computers, iPad, Apple Watch.
Apple (a few years earlier) spent just 400 million dollars for Next computer and picked up Steve Jobs in the process, one of the best CEOs in American history, were bargains compared to Microsoft’s buying a dinosaur/boat anchor like Activision.
I think Apple will be ok.....
Saying Apple didn’t do as bad as Microsoft is faint praise
You just have to find the humor here - this article is here about it being a disaster and there is another recent article about Apple reaping rewards for years to come, i thought i saw it say giant rewards but that seems to have disappeared. Seems more like a giant waste of time. I don’t think Tim Cook is a car guy, he may know just about nothing about the auto industry. He would have to release control and get out of the way, giving full control to somebody to run such a big project. Did he?
But, how can $10 billion be spent and have nothing on the road to show for it ???!!! I’m really amazed if that number is true. I think that real car companies have been founded and actually made cars while having far less than $10 billion dollars to start with. LOL
Apple spent only 10 billion dollars over 10 years that's a bargain compared to Microsoft or Google wild spending over the years.
* The big Acquisition losers of Microsoft Over the years…..
Web TV $425 million dollars.
Hotmail. $500 million dollars.
Vizio $1.4 billion dollars.
Titus communication $1 billion dollars.
Navison $1.4 billion dollars.
*aQuantive $6.4 billion dollars wrote off in 2012 i.e. (a completewrite off shortly after acquiring)
*Skype Technologies $8.5 billion dollars.
*Yammer $1.2 billion dollars.
*Nokia $7.2 billion dollars.
*LinkedIn $26.5 billion dollars
*Git hub $7.2 billion dollars.
*ZeniMax Media 8.1 billion dollars.
*Nuance Communications to $20 billion dollars.
*Activision $69 billion dollars (Biggest in Microsoft history)
Most of Microsoft acquisitions were complete right offs. You certainly did not see most of the so-call tech implemented into their finished software i.e., their desktop OS or their web services division software in any meaningful way that justified the inflated prices that they paid for these boondoggles.
Many of the purchases were impulse buys in short. Microsoft was flailing-thrashing around aimlessly searching for an answer to Apple’s rising dominance in tech most were fad companies at the time they were acquired,, and essentially Microsoft was bailing out a failing sinking ship.
Is AI anywhere in that Menagerie probably one or two?
Apple chose by necessity through the acquisition of PA Semi Intrinsity and Anobit which was a mere $750 million dollars, to build their own CPUs for their smartphone, Mac computers, iPad, Apple Watch.
Apple (a few years earlier) spent just 400 million dollars for Next computer and picked up Steve Jobs in the process, one of the best CEOs in American history, were bargains compared to Microsoft’s buying a dinosaur/boat anchor like Activision.
I think Apple will be ok.....
Saying Apple didn’t do as bad as Microsoft is faint praise
Not only didn't Apple do as badly as Microsoft or Google the numbers are not even close....... Apples largest acquisition to date 3 billion dollars (Beats), the best acquisitions made by Apple Next, Pa Semi, Intrinsity, and Anobit total cost 1.1 billion dollars plus one of best CEO's came along with Next Steve Jobs.
Apple spending 1billion per year for ten years on EV R&D hardly computes to the complete fail/fiasco's generated by Microsoft or Google in the last 18 years the praise in Apples flavor actually screams.
I own a Tesla and have almost the latest ‘Full Self Driving’ firmware. (The latest has only been released to a few hundred people.)
First I’ll say that I’m not here to defend or make excuses Elon and I’m no Tesla fanboy. My Model Y has been a great car for the 3 years I’ve had it but it’s also got it’s flaws.
As far as self-driving goes, no one has solved it yet. Different companies are taking different approaches with varying degrees of success. Tesla is no exception. On the interstate, the basic autopilot that comes with all Teslas is nearly flawless. I use it to drive from Minneapolis to Grand Forks and the the only thing I need to do is tug the wheel once in a while to satisfy the nanny-nag. In terms of SAE autonomy levels it is technically level 2. Many people have guessed/speculated why Tesla hasn’t expanded it to Level 3 but my suspicion is it’s a combination of legal/regulatory/insurance issues and a desire to solve the full autonomy puzzle for all roads, not just interstates.
I’ve been using the FSD beta software for the last 3 years. In that time it has made huge advances but still makes some baffling moves. I use it on the majority of my drives around town. I know how it behaves and at this point it’s fairly predictable in how it will misbehave. In the end, it probably does about 90-95% of my driving for me disengaging and taking over for the rest. It’s good, and for me it makes driving more relaxing but it’s not good enough to be more than a supervised assist at this point. Whether it will in the future remains to be seen but beta is a very accurate categorization in its current state.
The problem with a EV's will be one of insurance on the road and in the house (garage), the insurance industry already is canceling policies across the country in beach/hillside areas and they are not going to replace your house/condo/apartment in the future because your EV when up in flames inside of your garage (check those new waivers in your policy at renewal time). Self driving coverage yea.. sure.
I was thinking about downsizing into a condo/townhouse not anymore can't afford the risk of my neighbor parking their EV inside their garage and taking out my living space sticking with a detached house.
now you're repeating the 'alternative facts' from Fox. The incidence of fires in Tesla's is on the order of 10x lower than other vehicles and I've seen zero reports of people having issues with insurance.
Now collision and liability insurance related to driving assist features is a different issue that will need to be solved.
Once again the private insurance industry long term are not going to replace your house/condo/apartment in the future (not without a big bill) just because your EV went up in flames inside of your garage at least not for long.
Not sure if these guys have picked their moment prefectly to knock off Apples style or really badly given this news. I don't know maybe Apple should have been looking to literally leapfrog the auto-industry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqXCHkByZKY
Comments
No two R&D projects are the same and the weighting between the R and the D can be infinitely variable. Some projects start out with one mix of R&D but end up settling for something that is balanced differently. For companies like Apple who are financing their own R&D any change in the balance is up to them, but you can rest assured that Apple will definitely capture real value from what they've invested. The artifacts of the R part is their's to exploit whenever the time or circumstances present themselves. Is there a little bit of making lemonade going on here? Sure, but there are so many variables involved with any R&D project and at some point you have to make the call to get out with what you can before you end up going down a rat hole or money pit, or the ultimate boneheaded move, trying to save face by stumbling along and delaying until all of the time and money has been exhausted and you still have nothing to show for it. This behavior is pretty much called living a lie.
Like Steve Jobs always alluded to, sometimes you're going to be graded based on what you don't do rather than what you do.
Edit: If you need to see an example of what happens when a doomed project, one that should have pulled the plug much sooner, stumbles along here you go: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2024-29
But that's a paltry penalty compared to the destruction of hopes and dreams of the people affected.
First I’ll say that I’m not here to defend or make excuses Elon and I’m no Tesla fanboy. My Model Y has been a great car for the 3 years I’ve had it but it’s also got it’s flaws.
As far as self-driving goes, no one has solved it yet. Different companies are taking different approaches with varying degrees of success. Tesla is no exception. On the interstate, the basic autopilot that comes with all Teslas is nearly flawless. I use it to drive from Minneapolis to Grand Forks and the the only thing I need to do is tug the wheel once in a while to satisfy the nanny-nag. In terms of SAE autonomy levels it is technically level 2. Many people have guessed/speculated why Tesla hasn’t expanded it to Level 3 but my suspicion is it’s a combination of legal/regulatory/insurance issues and a desire to solve the full autonomy puzzle for all roads, not just interstates.
I’ve been using the FSD beta software for the last 3 years. In that time it has made huge advances but still makes some baffling moves. I use it on the majority of my drives around town. I know how it behaves and at this point it’s fairly predictable in how it will misbehave. In the end, it probably does about 90-95% of my driving for me disengaging and taking over for the rest. It’s good, and for me it makes driving more relaxing but it’s not good enough to be more than a supervised assist at this point. Whether it will in the future remains to be seen but beta is a very accurate categorization in its current state.
Apple spent only 10 billion dollars over 10 years that's a bargain compared to Microsoft or Google wild spending over the years.
* The big Acquisition losers of Microsoft Over the years…..
Web TV $425 million dollars.
Hotmail. $500 million dollars.
Vizio $1.4 billion dollars.
Titus communication $1 billion dollars.
Navison $1.4 billion dollars.
*aQuantive $6.4 billion dollars wrote off in 2012 i.e. (a completewrite off shortly after acquiring)
*Skype Technologies $8.5 billion dollars.
*Yammer $1.2 billion dollars.
*Nokia $7.2 billion dollars.
*LinkedIn $26.5 billion dollars
*Git hub $7.2 billion dollars.
*ZeniMax Media 8.1 billion dollars.
*Nuance Communications to $20 billion dollars.
*Activision $69 billion dollars (Biggest in Microsoft history)
Most of Microsoft acquisitions were complete right offs. You certainly did not see most of the so-call tech implemented into their finished software i.e., their desktop OS or their web services division software in any meaningful way that justified the inflated prices that they paid for these boondoggles.
Many of the purchases were impulse buys in short. Microsoft was flailing-thrashing around aimlessly searching for an answer to Apple’s rising dominance in tech most were fad companies at the time they were acquired,, and essentially Microsoft was bailing out a failing sinking ship.
Is AI anywhere in that Menagerie probably one or two?
Apple chose by necessity through the acquisition of PA Semi Intrinsity and Anobit which was a mere $750 million dollars, to build their own CPUs for their smartphone, Mac computers, iPad, Apple Watch.
Apple (a few years earlier) spent just 400 million dollars for Next computer and picked up Steve Jobs in the process, one of the best CEOs in American history, were bargains compared to Microsoft’s buying a dinosaur/boat anchor like Activision.
I think Apple will be ok.....
The problem with a EV's will be one of insurance on the road and in the house (garage), the insurance industry already is canceling policies across the country in beach/hillside areas and they are not going to replace your house/condo/apartment in the future because your EV when up in flames inside of your garage (check those new waivers in your policy at renewal time). Self driving coverage yea.. sure.
I was thinking about downsizing into a condo/townhouse not anymore can't afford the risk of my neighbor parking their EV inside their garage and taking out my living space sticking with a detached house.
Now collision and liability insurance related to driving assist features is a different issue that will need to be solved.
It's a new industry with a lot of room in it. Do you really think Honda and Toyota are going to have a problem selling EVs when they commit to those models? I don't think so. Mercedes and BMW as well. Porsche and Audi maybe not because...VW.
Or are you guys saying that no ICE manufacturer is going to come into the EV business and...so to speak? Dangerous thinking there. We have well over a hundred years of automotive manufacturing and sales to draw on. Is a Chevy model released in March at a disadvantage to a Ford released in February, or a model released in 2023 versus 2024?
Not only didn't Apple do as badly as Microsoft or Google the numbers are not even close....... Apples largest acquisition to date 3 billion dollars (Beats), the best acquisitions made by Apple Next, Pa Semi, Intrinsity, and Anobit total cost 1.1 billion dollars plus one of best CEO's came along with Next Steve Jobs.
Apple spending 1billion per year for ten years on EV R&D hardly computes to the complete fail/fiasco's generated by Microsoft or Google in the last 18 years the praise in Apples flavor actually screams.
Once again the private insurance industry long term are not going to replace your house/condo/apartment in the future (not without a big bill) just because your EV went up in flames inside of your garage at least not for long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itGeAq9rBeY Notice the snow on the ground if you can't park inside the garage on a cold night why buy a EV on the high plains.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIpXkQhq1ps
I don't know maybe Apple should have been looking to literally leapfrog the auto-industry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqXCHkByZKY