MplsP

danox said:

M68000 said:

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.....

Mike Wuerthele said:

MplsP said:

So...apple spent $10b on a car but it wasn't wasted money because they can still use the tech in other areas. That's like saying the $100k I spent on a machine shop wasn't wasted because I can still use the drill press and have the rest of the space for storage. They're cutting their losses which is good but they still have losses to cut which it the main issue.

Now, all of this is based on rumors. It is possible that Apple never intended to build a car and was simply using it as a technology development platform because that was the best method for their use. If that's the case then they spent $10b on R&D. That's not really consistent with what we've been hearing, though.

How a car works on a fundamental level, including electric ones, is a solved problem. It doesn't require a pile of R&D.

Making it self-driving is very clearly not a solved problem.

More properly, repurposing your own analogy, the $100K you spent on a machine shop to make metal yo-yos isn't wasted when the yo-yo shop closes down, because you can still make gears, or other components from the tools, skills, and materials you got.

danox said:

MplsP said:

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.