AI Chief John Giannandrea Takes Over Apple Car Project

[MacRumors]

Apple is continuing work on developing some kind of autonomous vehicle product, and the project is under new leadership. Apple artificial intelligence lead John Giannandrea is now overseeing Apple Car development as prior lead Bob Mansfield has retired, reports Bloomberg.

One of the self-driving vehicles Apple uses to test its autonomous driving software​

It's been quite some time since we heard news about the Apple Car, but Project Titan as the car development is known is now in the hands of Giannandrea, though day to day operations continue to be overseen by Doug Field.

Field was reporting to Bob Mansfield, who came out of retirement in 2016 to handle the Apple Car project. Mansfield first retired in June 2012, but ultimately remained at Apple as an advisor. Prior to being led by Mansfield, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering Dan Riccio was overseeing work on the Apple Car.

Giannandrea is Apple's senior vice president of AI and machine learning, and Project Titan's hundreds of engineers are now under his watch. Giannandrea also heads up Siri development and Apple's work on machine learning.

Apple has been working on some kind of self-driving car technology since 2014, but development has been stymied by technical and leadership challenges. Apple was originally working on a full car, but focus seems to have shifted to an in-car autonomous driving system. Apple continues to have dozens of self-driving test vehicles out on the road.

Back in 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that Apple is working on autonomous driving software. "We're focusing on autonomous systems. It's a core technology that we view as very important. We sort of see it as the mother of all AI projects. It's probably one of the most difficult AI projects actually to work on," he said.

Article Link: AI Chief John Giannandrea Takes Over Apple Car Project

 

[dannyyankou]

You mean the guy responsible for Siri? Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

 

[routine_analyst]

My hope for this project has run dry. It was interesting back when Tesla was the only viable EV. Now you have literally every manufacturer coming out with a vehicle with decades of experience in production. BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Ford, Caddy, Hummer, Rivian, Lexus, etc.

Will the Apple Car use the Digital Crown as a steering wheel? "Made 100% of recycled aluminum and powered by Siri"

Hey Siri - turn left.
"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

 

[gugy]

Damn, I thought this idea was long gone. Not sure I like it. I don't want Apple all over and spread too thin.

 

[JosephAW]

When they finally release a car it will be priced like their new headphones with three more zeros added to the price and Mr Cook will say this is a car for the average citizen.

 

[Sharewaredemon]

IMO the car won't be something you buy and own yourself. I can see Apple using autonomous driving for many things beyond selling you a car.

It seems more likely they will have a subscription service for the vehicles, fleets of them in cities, and they deploy based on need. Want to go somewhere, ask Siri and the vehicle shows up to take you there.

 

[thelonelylimo]

No mention of Alex Hitzinger who recently left Apple to go back (he was at Porsche before Apple) to the Volkswagen Automotive Group and develop their MaaS and EV platform out of the Audi sub? Odd, but okay.

 

[twocents]

My understanding from sources, take what you will, is that this project is intended to yield a carOS that handles the smart operations of the vehicle, e.g. cruise control, self-parking, safe braking, the same way CarPlay handles the dashboard at-a-glance navigation and communicating. Now with JG, machine learning is going to put this in higher gear

 

[Red Oak]

Apple is still 5+ years from launching any vehicle, if at all

It seems like they still don’t even no what they want to do in this space. After ten years and billions and billions of $ spent

 

[Erehy Dobon]

My hope for this project has run dry. It was interesting back when Tesla was the only viable EV. Now you have literally every manufacturer coming out with a vehicle with decades of experience in production. BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Ford, Caddy, Hummer, Rivian, Lexus, etc.

You are mixing up electric vehicles (EV) with autonomous driving. They are two separate technologies.

Electric vehicles have been around for quite a while, the most notable ones being the Ford EV1 (modeled after the Probe) and Toyota's RAV4 EV way back from the Nineties.

Note that almost all of the companies researching autonomous driving start in gasoline-powered vehicles.

This includes Google/Waymo and Apple who have both used the Chrysler Pacifica minivan for autonomous driving research.

There are probably thirty companies with autonomous driving research teams in the north Santa Clara County area, so of which are the major auto manufacturers and a bunch of startups including ones that have been acquired by larger companies (driveAI is one notable acquired startup).

There are tons of test vehicles on the local roads, some of which are clearly marked by the developing company, plenty of others are in stealth mode.

Note that this seems to include motorcycle manufacturers. There was a Ducati office in a nondescript Silicon Valley office park very close to where I live. This was not a sales office.

 

[Neepman]

The liabiiities and integration issues are going to keep driverless vehicles out of the possibility of anyone who's is capable of reading this posts lifetime.

 

[reyesmac]

Maybe they will first use these on their own campuses all over the world since they can control the entire layout of them. They can also map the directions to the nearest airports and other nearby locations. I don't see how they can skip a step like this to boost confidence before creating a commercial product. More than likely the cars will be to expensive to own outright. They might first sell these to places like Dubai or china that could use vehicles that will not contradict the authority of their state leaders.

 

[applicious84]

I really hope they at least use Google maps to navigate...on that note, maybe they should finish Apple maps

 

[Erehy Dobon]

The liabiiities and integration issues are going to keep driverless vehicles out of the possibility of anyone who's is capable of reading this posts lifetime.

And you will be wrong.

There are already tests taking place in some US states and abroad. Here in California there are already prototype autonomous vehicles with California DOT registration numbers for commercial use, the same ones used by commute buses and limousines.

Waymo has several of the minivans with the TCP numbers.

The legal system will decide where the liability will fall but the most logical guess would be to the vehicle operator/registered owner. All of the DMVs have started along this path anyhow, allowing provisional permission for these test vehicles to be on public roads because there is already insurance and some sort of liability agreement.

I can't predict exactly when it will happen but it's not far away.

I have been around these autonomous driving vehicles, as another driver, a cyclist and a pedestrian. For sure, I feel WAY safer around these prototype autonomous vehicles than a gas-powered vehicle being operated by a teenager or someone in their early twenties.

It is worth pointing out that these autonomous test vehicles are now collectively showing statistics that they are in fact safer than human-powered vehicles in their current testing environments.

Note that many individual pieces have already made it to mass market automobiles: lane guidance, frontal collision detection, assisted parking, etc.

 

[nt5672]

Can't wait for AI updates that break the car for 2+ weeks until they are fixed. Apple has way too many software problems to be serious about AI and driving.

 

[filchermcurr]

God help us if autonomous vehicles are powered by Siri.

"HEY SIRI, EMERGENCY STOP!"
"Your car is not connected to the internet."

Or your phone or watch catches it and fails to pass it off to the car. "I'm sorry, I can only do that in Apple Car."

 

[NT1440]

Apple is still 5+ years from launching any vehicle, if at all

It seems like they still don’t even no what they want to do in this space. After ten years and billions and billions of $ spent

And a treasure chest of IP and patents for that IP 😉

 

[ghanwani]

They have to. Right now, Amazon and Google are taking over the infotainment software from the incumbents (e.g. Continental, Garmin, etc.). The infotainment system in the new XC40 Recharge is going to be powered by Android
and the infotainment in the Ariya will be powered by Alexa.

In the next step, they will take over the entire brains of the car (e.g. lane keep assist, emergency braking, etc.). And from there they will provide enhanced levels of autonomous driving with the goal of getting to full self driving (not sure if things will ever get there because of liability). So Apple needs to step up its game or they will miss this market which is HUGE.

This is not about building a car, or even building a self driving car. This is about building the brains of the car -- the infotainment system and the software that controls the intelligent driving aids. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't do well with disaggregated systems, so I see a very high probably of a failed project.

 

[ateslik]

My hope for this project has run dry. It was interesting back when Tesla was the only viable EV. Now you have literally every manufacturer coming out with a vehicle with decades of experience in production. BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Ford, Caddy, Hummer, Rivian, Lexus, etc.

Will the Apple Car use the Digital Crown as a steering wheel? "Made 100% of recycled aluminum and powered by Siri"

Hey Siri - turn left.
"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

I found these results for "turn left". Check them out!

 

[boast]

Giannandrea also heads up Siri development and Apple's work on machine learning.

🙊

 

[Abstract]

It seems like they still don’t even no what they want to do in this space. After ten years and billions and billions of $ spent

Meh, I think Apple have simply pivoted.

They probably wanted to collaborate with a car manufacturer and build their own Apple Car at some point, but now they’re more worried about the software and AI again.

 

[mozumder]

To be clear, self driving cars are NEVER going to happen. The problem space is too big.

The tech might be useful in other endeavors though.

Anyone that bought into the idea should have known better.

 

[NMBob]

Maybe they are just working on building one of those robot mice that ran around on the Death Star. Charging brick not included.

 

[mozumder]

And you will be wrong.

There are already tests taking place in some US states and abroad. Here in California there are already prototype autonomous vehicles with California DOT registration numbers for commercial use, the same ones used by commute buses and limousines.

Waymo has several of the minivans with the TCP numbers.

The legal system will decide where the liability will fall but the most logical guess would be to the vehicle operator/registered owner. All of the DMVs have started along this path anyhow, allowing provisional permission for these test vehicles to be on public roads because there is already insurance and some sort of liability agreement.

I can't predict exactly when it will happen but it's not far away.

I have been around these autonomous driving vehicles, as another driver, a cyclist and a pedestrian. For sure, I feel WAY safer around these prototype autonomous vehicles than a gas-powered vehicle being operated by a teenager or someone in their early twenties.

It is worth pointing out that these autonomous test vehicles are now collectively showing statistics that they are in fact safer than human-powered vehicles in their current testing environments.

Note that many individual pieces have already made it to mass market automobiles: lane guidance, frontal collision detection, assisted parking, etc.

Lots of prototype test-cases are happening, doesn't mean they'll be viable at all in real-world conditions.

Again, it is NEVER going to happen.

EVER.

Right now they're far more dangerous than gas-powered motorcycles driven by teenagers, as shown by their accident rates.

Meanwhile, there are some car models that have NEVER had a driver fatality.

 

[DocMultimedia]

After a ton of patents and piles of cash, I still don't see this coming out in the 2020s. Maybe the 2030s if ever.