9 ms·
Apple buys autonomous driving company Drive.ai
- iandanforth 7y ago"Apple shows up to Drive.ai liquidation sale" would be more informative. A small number of employees and some assets were brought over.
- jaimex2 7y agoWorth it for the domain name.
- MR4D 7y agoI think Apple is holding out for i.Drive instead. :)
- gumby 7y agoJoke is great but raises a serious (well, non-joking) question. iDrive is a brand used by a German car company (BMW? Audi?). When the iPhone launched, it turned out after launch that Cisco owned the trademark. When Apple got going they had a trademark dispute with Apple Records (the Beatles' publishing company) which was easily settled as Apple in California was clearly a computer company....until decades later they launched Apple Music. So...your joke may not be off the mark.
- throwaway082729 7y agoMaybe iTDrives
- quickthrower2 7y agoHumanless Horseless Carriage
- gumby 7y agoYou make me wnoder where the self-driving horse-and-buggies are.
- toasterlovin 7y agoNew Apple products simply use the company's name followed by the generic name for the product. So, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Apple Pay, etc. Makes it almost impossible for another company to squat on a future product name
- armadsen 7y agoYeah, they've been pretty deliberate about moving away from 'i' names lately. In macOS Catalina, even iTunes will be gone, replaced by Music.app. iMessage -> Messages, iBooks -> Books, etc. iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, iMac are the biggest holdouts, and they haven't named a new product iSomething for many years now.
- bredren 7y agoIndeed. i is over.
- bredren 7y agoActually, iPadOS is perhaps a counter-example. But maybe they had no choice to keep name symmetry there.
- toasterlovin 7y agoI would say that iPadOS is the exception that proves the rule. The only reason it starts with an 'i' is because it's name derives directly from a 10 year old product.
- bredren 7y agoI was not familiar with this expression "exception that proves the rule," but I agree. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule
- codetrotter 7y agoI phone, you drive — and by “you” I mean the car, driving itself. They should name it uDrive.
- phs318u 7y agoOr Drive.me
- lpcvoid 7y agoiDrive is a BMW Brand.
- Animats 7y agoWell, at least Drive.ai's creditors have a good chance of being paid. It's not yet clear if the "mass layoffs" planned for Friday will still happen.[1] Does anybody, anywhere, have a reliable self-driving car in use on public streets without a "safety driver"? Waymo did briefly, but backed off. [1] https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/25/18758820/drive-ai-self-driving-startup-shutting-down-apple https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/25/18758820/drive-ai-self-dr...
- drawnwren 7y agoIs Waymo not driving fully autonomous in Phoenix still? Edit: It looks like they aren't [1] 1: https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/7/18536003/waymo-lyft-self-driving-ride-hail-app-phoenix https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/7/18536003/waymo-lyft-self-d...
- pauljurczak 7y agoNo.
- xxxpupugo 7y agoThinking of the liability and the bad press had there is one accident occurred... Unless self-driving had been proven super reliable and all the regulation and liability had been sorted out like it is the case with aviation, I don't think any sane companies will risk that much.
- robterrell 7y ago"The backdrop: Drive.ai's highlighter-orange vans ferried workers around a business park in Frisco, Tex., and shuttled fans in nearby Arlington to Cowboys games." This sounds more impressive than the Cruise cars I see with one driver-engineer at the wheel. Has anyone been shuttled in one and can comment on the experience?
- jedberg 7y agoI’ve been in a rival company’s car that drives in SF. It was truly amazing. On the short drive it dealt with a garbage bag in the street, a truck driving the wrong way on a one way street, a jaywalker, and a double parked car, all with no issues whatsoever. I know some cruise guys, and they say it’s a similar experience. They basically run a free, autonomous Uber for employees. They’ll be full in the morning and afternoon and then drive around the city alone midday to build up miles.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- m3kw9 7y agoReal old news
- jedberg 7y ago> Why it matters: The deal and hires confirm that Apple hasn't given up its autonomous driving project. I think the first sign was the near continuous sightings of Apple’s self driving cars in Cupertino. At one point i literally saw four of them at the intersection of Homestead and Wolfe (next to the spaceship), one going in each direction.
- taneq 7y agoThat almost sounds like a set-piece, making sure they don't interfere with each other (assuming they're using LIDAR).
- chairmanwow 7y agoI’m not sure about this. This kind of integration test would almost certainly be performed in a closed course (parking lot / garage).
- earenndil 7y agoWell, as an initial test, sure, but you have to do the same test in an open road once you know it works in isolation.
- hwillis 7y agoIt probably also makes sense to do it in an environment with lots of reflections of different kinds. If you were genuinely worried about your primary sensor getting bad data, you definitely wouldn't test four of them together in the real world until you were quite sure they would be fine. Just imagine two of them taking off at the light and swerving wildly around phantom cars!
- bduerst 7y agoWas that before they laid off 190 employees from the self-driving team?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- xxxpupugo 7y agoFeel bad for the employees, not sure how much their options would be worthy of right now...
- jedberg 7y agoIf the price barely covered the VCs I doubt the employees got anything.
- sriram_sun 7y agoThey were granted a swift passage. Many should be thankful for that.
- eanzenberg 7y agoKind of sux when they probably took paycuts to join with promises of equity riches
- jonathankoren 7y agoNever join a startup to get rich. Your option are lottery tickets, and most likely worthless. In fact, they’re worthless, right up until a liquidity event, and many times — like now — they’re still worthless.
- eanzenberg 7y agoIt’s now extremely ill-advised to join a startup. There are barely any advantages unless you are 1) young 2) a cofounder or 3) some altruistic reason. If you are neither these things, it’s completely not worth it.
- jedberg 7y agoYou forgot 4) Want a chance to gain a lot of experience and responsibility quickly.
- foobiekr 7y agoThe price is interesting. An awful lot of the self-driving companies are hoping for a big acquisition. It reminds me of the SDN market just before VMware bought Nicira. And there wasn’t a second Nicira, not really.
- erklik 7y agoThis wasn't really a acquisition though. More like Apple buying some assets as Drive.ai gets liquidated.
- foobiekr 7y agoThat distinction is mostly not real. Startups that are losing altitude start looking for an acquirer no less than 6 months before they know they’re done. The very likely ran the gamut of every acquirer they could get connected to. The case where companies run into the wall at full speed (a funding round fell through) mostly were very mismanaged.
- bradknowles 7y agoI wonder how happy GeoHotz is about this development?
- computerex 7y agoLol, who cares?
- justwalt 7y agoI can think of at least one person.
- viraptor 7y agoIs comma.ai interesting to other companies at all? They have a system for integrating into existing cruise control, which Apple doesn't need (they can drop money to get cars made for them). They also have a vision system which is not very secret - throw lots of video footage into a NN - which should be possible to replicate relatively easily. Apart from aquihire, why would anyone buy comma.ai?
- erklik 7y agoIs comma.ai's driving system at all realistic in terms of actual capability? I don't own a compatiable car (nor have the knowledge or courage) otherwise I would love to install and try to use it.
- viraptor 7y agoDepends what you expect from it. I think the official website describes it perfectly well: "openpilot improves your stock ACC and LKAS". It's a fancy, very active cruise control. From I've seen it seems to work really well.
- hackerbabz 7y agoA couple of years ago the founder was super confident that he would have a fully self driving car soon, and definitely before Tesla. A couple of months ago I read that he decided the problem is basically unsolvable and a human will always need to be involved. He's still right about being "before Tesla" as long as Tesla never figures it out either.
- pentae 7y agoI know tons of developers clinging onto their old Macbooks who refuse to buy the new generation and many are changing to PC's. My GoPro has a USB-C port on it. My USB-C to USB-C data cable won't recognise it on my MBP. Have to use USB-C > USB-A -> Dongle -> USB-C. My left arrow key sticks after my keyboard replacement. I still keep ghost tapping that damn escape key on the touchbar after 3 years. Apple: Forget all that, let's invest in self driving cars and new watch bands.
- ramraj07 7y agoIsn't the MacBooks charging cable USB c both sides??
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- gumby 7y agoReally? I use a standard type C data cable to talk to my Mavic without problems. Perhaps you're using a power only cable? The lack of standard labeling on type C connectors or cables is a slow motion disaster I agree. But your experience is quite a surprise.
- BurningFrog 7y agoOh, you're saying that just because USB-C connectors fit physically doesn't mean they work together. Interesting problem that I hadn't fully realized. Labeling would seem to be a good thing, that will never happen :)
- gugagore 7y agoThe same thing happened with thunderbolt/mini display port. Different cables have different capabilities, even though all them use the same connect
- gumby 7y agoNote that there are plenty of type A power cables that lack data lines as well, so this is not only a Type C problem. These Type A charger cables are out of spec though, I believe. As far as Type C goes, AFAIK there isn't a true "universal" cable available and probably there never will be (though a thunderbolt cable today is pretty close...but unlikely to support 100W power distribution). The reason I say "never will be" is that some of the high performance data transmission or power transmission are expensive and someone who only needs 15W of power and/or USB 2 won't want to pay for that. Plus new modes are being invented all the time.
- mandeepj 7y agoAndrew ng was a board member at Drive.ai and also posted some very promising videos like driving in rain etc. Not sure what lead to this lukewarm exit.
- ramraj07 7y agoBecause every automotive company already has a self driving division and they have realized it's not a realistic dream to work on for at least a decade?
- Erlich_Bachman 7y agoHow is it "not realistic to work on"? Tesla has a self-driving functionality in their cars right now on the market, and a quick youtube research will show you that it blows the competition right off, they are better by an order of a magnitude. Now, it is nowhere near full (level 5 or whatever) self-driving, but noone says that it has to be. The point is that you bring up all other car manufacturers, and they all have obviously inferior products compared to Tesla's (if we are looking at commercially available general personal vechicles). The self-driving as it is right now (even though not level 5) is obviously very useful to many people, it is a good product, the market is right there. And yet these Every Automotive Companies have failed to produce something that Tesla already has on the market. So the problem is not that it is not an "unrealistic dream",(if it exists already), the problem is that other automotive companies are basically behind on this. My guess is that they are not software companies, they have never had to develop really complicated software, and while having expertise on the mechanical side of things, they are ways behind on the software.
- dmitriid 7y ago> Tesla has a self-driving functionality in their cars right now on the market It’s semi-autonomous, requiring constant attention from the driver and operating in an extremely limited set of conditions. Truly autonomous cars are decades away.
- 7y ago
- gumby 7y agoApple pretty consistently pays bottom dollar for acquisitions, and typically does an acquihire which results in the former company's product being deep sixed. So this looks like an autonomous driving skill acquisition, but for all we know the remaining team will be purposed to guessing where you are by dead-reckoning on your phone, or improving Photos' judgement or who knows. In fact the only case I can remember when they didn't do this was with the liquid metal company, and that one didn't pan out. (there are presumably others but I don't recall any off the top of my head.). They have bought a few products, like iTunes, without buying the company.
- lemoncucumber 7y agoSiri was an acquired product that survived, but more often than not you’re right.
- KileyKiley 7y agovxvxcvxcv
- graeme 7y agoWorkflow --> Shortcuts was another acquisition where they kept the product going and how now integrated it into their software. But indeed, not the rule.
- wlesieutre 7y agoShazam is another, Apple removed Admob, Bolts, Doubleclick, FB Ads, FB Analytics, FB login, Inmobi, IAS, Moat, and Mopub from the app and continued to update it.
- Larrikin 7y agoIs Shazam actually one of the safer "always on" microphone apps. I didn't realize it was owned by Apple. I found the desktop app pretty useful in just identifying songs friends played when people were over, popular songs in commercials, and just popular songs that played when I lived abroad on tv. But as I thought about the security implications of apps like Alexa and Hey Google I eventually uninstalled it. Siri was always basically useless so I kept it off mostly for that reason.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- oblib 7y agoPersonally, I will never let a machine take over controlling a automobile I'm in. Never. They may be good enough some decades from now, but they are not now and we are a long, long way from getting to the point where they are. This has been proven too many times already to trust my life in a machine doing highway speeds, and I trust them even less on streets and roads. For the record, I've never caused an accident in my 46 years of driving. The only accident I've been in was with a dumbass who turned left in front of me at an intersection I'd already entered and I was able to minimize the impact by slowing down before they did that and steering into the least damaging hit for me because I was watching the driver's eyes and body and could see they were thinking about it and then decided to do it. No self driving car can do that now and it will be a very long time before they can.
- toasterlovin 7y agoYou are a machine. Except you don't have 360 degree sensors or lidar.
- sorokod 7y agoBut they do have free will and agency.
- revscat 7y agoNot really. If you’re stuck in rush hour traffic, your “free will” is limited by your immediate surroundings, specifically the cars around you. Sure, you could abandon your car and walk or something, but that’s not likely a rational choice. Given that “free will” is limited, and doubly so when operating a vehicle, that’s not very much of a rebuttal.
- sorokod 7y agoLimited or not, it is different from having none at all. Obviously it is up to the individual to quantify the loss.
- dalbasal 7y agoPersonally, I'm happy to see multiple strong techcos getting involved in autonomous driving. Apple especially, considering their non-standard MO. Uber & Tesla are showing us that just because a company is culturally SV/startup, it doesn't necessarily mean that their business becomes a (taking Thiel's definition) monopoly in the Google/FB sense. If/when autonomous driving starts living up to predictions, it will be a massive crucial industry. Hopefully every part of it will be a competitive market. An Airbnb of autonomous trucking or a Microsoft of autonomous taxis would be disturbing.
- WhompingWindows 7y agoI think it'll roll out in different geographic areas at different times, depending on regulations and mapping data of each company. Waymo is clearly going to be first in Arizona, Tesla may be first to a wide roll-out, and let's be real, probably Waymo will be first in California too.
- jasleenkaur 7y agoBlack Magic Specialist is Best Service in Kerala We Are Professional Astrologer Pandit Ayush Sharma Ji We Solve All Problems in 2 Hours Call +919610897260 Visit Us http://www.blackmagicno1.blogspot.com http://www.blackmagicno1.blogspot.com
- hansdieter1337 7y agoI can confirm that they didn't stop their self driving car project. I see their Lexus driving around Sunnyvale all the time.
- solos 7y agoawesome
- williesleg 7y agoIs this how they're gonna get rid of Tim Apple? First drive in their iCar?
- honopu 7y agoApple should just buy Tesla. What a story, helping the world with energy, driving safety, etc. Seeing Elon Musk as the CEO of Apple would be interesting to say the least. Beats somewhat lead the way for them to have different brands under their umbrella.
- rahkiin 7y agoMusk as the CEO of Apple would be an unmitigated disaster.
- sprafa 7y agoMusk as the CEO of anything has been less than great. At PayPal e was forced out, at Tesla <no comment take your own conclusions> and at SpaceX my understand is he is at arm’s length and has someone else administer the company - which appears to be just about the smartest thing he’s done.
- ajslater 7y agoGwynne Shotwell runs SpaceX. He could use a Shotwell for Tesla and focus on his strength: being outrageous and running his useful cult of personality. I’m not sure his behavior helps fundraising anymore.
- sprafa 7y agoYeah pretty much. It’s fascinating why he hasn’t arrived at the same conclusion. The man has his strengths but the actual nuts and bolts of running a company day to day does not appear to be his sharpest edge. Surely even he can see that, sometimes? Makes me wonder how blind we can be to our own flaws...
- lasryaric 7y agoEx drive.ai employee here. I got $0 for my stocks.
- gesman 7y agoWere you employee at a time of acquisition?
- lasryaric 7y agowhy would it matter? I had vested a good chunk of my stocks. And it’s hard to define since they did not buy my shares.
- dbancajas 7y agowhat was the grant value of your stocks?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- sdinsn 7y agoSo Apple did not actually buy all of drive.ai?
- lasryaric 7y agoI honestly have no idea of what I can say and what I can't say. I think it's reasonable to think that I can share that nobody bought my shares. I can't talk for any other employee or anybody else.
- tim333 7y agoThe crunchbase story title "Apple Said To Have Bought Assets Of Struggling Drive.ai" perhaps indicates what happened. https://news.crunchbase.com/news/drive-ai-reportedly-closing-down-after-raising-77m/ https://news.crunchbase.com/news/drive-ai-reportedly-closing...
- canada_dry 7y agoIronically, I wonder how many of the folks that were laid off recently (http://fortune.com/2016/09/11/apple-self-driving-car-layoffs/ http://fortune.com/2016/09/11/apple-self-driving-car-layoffs...) landed a position at Drive.ai only to be brought back into the clan?