Project Titan is such a funny thing. Back when Chauffeur, Google's self driving car project was the only game in town, automakers found it pretty easy to dismiss, but when rumours of an autonomous Apple car began to circulate, the tone amongst car people began to shift. It's what got the automakers thinking "Is this self driving car jazz for real? Omg it might be for real! The tech companies are going to eat our lunch".
It took the carmakers a while to figure out which way was up. The Germans spent $3 billion acquiring Here maps, which was a misfire. Tesla was quick to implement Mobileye's EyeQ3 chip and single camera system and then promptly burned their bridges with Mobileye by pushing the system's capabilities way beyond it's safe design constraints.
Ironically, Apple had succumb to irrational exuberance themselves in moving so aggressively on Titan. Analysts notes a $10 billion dollar bump in Apple's R&D budget during the 2 years when Titan was big. Supposedly the project was a clusterfuck. Steve Zadesky, who was put in charge wanted to make a fairly conventional car with autonomous features, but Jony I've and a group of engineers were adamant about developing a robotaxi, which offered the best opportunity to "reinvent the mobility experience". They couldn't come to terms and executive leadership of Titan was broken from the start.
So however much things were scaled back, the project definitely isn't dead. 27 test vehicles isn't small potatoes. Maybe Apple still intends to build their own vehicle, I guess we'll see.
They could've done a lot more if they were more focused, but that's not really how Apple works. They don't really research based on current technology, they like to spend time & money what could be invented. They even investigated things like "spherical wheels" [1]:
> Apple even looked into reinventing the wheel. A team within Titan investigated the possibility of using spherical wheels — round like a globe — instead of the traditional, round ones, because spherical wheels could allow the car better lateral movement.
You make some great points here. However, isn't 27 vehicles small potatoes? Tesla has almost 500,000 cars on the road and it also has 5 billion miles driven. That's a lot of training data. The approach to self-driving cars is largely training a model, so the data from 27 cars is actually extremely underwhelming.
To be honest, I'd be pretty happy if apple would just let me use google maps with carplay. Can we make that happen before we figure out robot cars, apple?
Don't hold your breath. We'll all be forced to use apple maps until the end times.
I mostly like CarPlay, but the navigation is the sticking point, not because the directions or metadata are bad, but because the search is so, so, so bad.
I can't speak on car play, but I switched back from GMaps to Apple.
I hadn't used it since it first came out (when it sucked) but have found it's a lot better now. I especially like that it gives me the speed limit, a feature I wish Google had. I have removed Google Maps from my phone altogether now.
Google Maps has been awful for me lately. Missing turns, not being forward enough (as in, telling me "turn left/right after the current turn). It also has given me completely wrong instructions on where to go at the end of the route to get to the destination, one time even getting me there, having me drive by it, then go a few blocks down a residential street, and say "you've arrived".. when I was clearly not at my destination.
I might be wrong, but I thought the issue was the Google Maps haven't built a CarPlay UI for their iOS app? Is it actually Apple that's preventing them from doing it?
As much as I want to agree with you, from a product perspective, it's problematic: do you offer only one option and give Google virtually a monopoly in the navigation market, or do you offer multiple options and potentially confuse users (a la the Paradox of Choice?)
[+] [-] Fricken|8 years ago|reply
It took the carmakers a while to figure out which way was up. The Germans spent $3 billion acquiring Here maps, which was a misfire. Tesla was quick to implement Mobileye's EyeQ3 chip and single camera system and then promptly burned their bridges with Mobileye by pushing the system's capabilities way beyond it's safe design constraints.
Ironically, Apple had succumb to irrational exuberance themselves in moving so aggressively on Titan. Analysts notes a $10 billion dollar bump in Apple's R&D budget during the 2 years when Titan was big. Supposedly the project was a clusterfuck. Steve Zadesky, who was put in charge wanted to make a fairly conventional car with autonomous features, but Jony I've and a group of engineers were adamant about developing a robotaxi, which offered the best opportunity to "reinvent the mobility experience". They couldn't come to terms and executive leadership of Titan was broken from the start.
So however much things were scaled back, the project definitely isn't dead. 27 test vehicles isn't small potatoes. Maybe Apple still intends to build their own vehicle, I guess we'll see.
[+] [-] kaiby|8 years ago|reply
> Apple even looked into reinventing the wheel. A team within Titan investigated the possibility of using spherical wheels — round like a globe — instead of the traditional, round ones, because spherical wheels could allow the car better lateral movement.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/technology/apple-self-dri...
[+] [-] hi-im-mi-ih|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rockinghigh|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gallerdude|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gxs|8 years ago|reply
They aren't strapped for cash, hire brilliant people, so you really get to see the impact of different strategies and other factors at play.
I'm, at least, enjoying the show.
[+] [-] curiouscat321|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] empath75|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] atonse|8 years ago|reply
I mostly like CarPlay, but the navigation is the sticking point, not because the directions or metadata are bad, but because the search is so, so, so bad.
[+] [-] sachleen|8 years ago|reply
I hadn't used it since it first came out (when it sucked) but have found it's a lot better now. I especially like that it gives me the speed limit, a feature I wish Google had. I have removed Google Maps from my phone altogether now.
[+] [-] spike021|8 years ago|reply
Might try Apple Maps again.
[+] [-] ritwikroy|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] s3r3nity|8 years ago|reply