Charlie StrossFeb 27, 2024

Apple Cancels Work on Electric Car, Ending Decade long Effort

The most recent approach discussed internally was delaying a car release until 2028 and reducing self-driving specifications from Level 4 to Level 2+ technology.

Many employees on the car team — known as the Special Projects Group, or SPG — will be shifted to the artificial intelligence division

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-27/apple-cancels-work-on-electric-car-shifts-team-to-generative-ai

Apple to Wind Down Electric Car Effort After Decadelong Odyssey

Apple Inc. is canceling a decadelong effort to build an electric car, according to people with knowledge of the matter, abandoning one of the most ambitious projects in the history of the company.

Bloomberg
Show threadCharlie StrossFeb 27, 2024
It's a classic case of Christensen's "The Innovator's Dilemma". Also, it's REALLY HARD to make a breakout automobile. (Tesla almost did, but screwed the pooch with bad quality control, poor ergonomics, and toxic company culture.) And even if you do, Ford/GM/Toyota/VW will catch up within a decade and eat your lunch. It's why most auto startups seem to be hypercars with a 7-digit price tag—there's a ridiculous profit margin—but production volume is too tiny for Apple to touch.
Show threadTonyCFeb 27, 2024
@cstross I wonder if they thought they could license the software to other auto makers? The car would be a proof of concept.
Show threadCharlie StrossFeb 27, 2024
@phlebas That was my thought too. But scaling back from self-driving level 4 to 2+, when the likes of Mercedes and Tesla are at 2 already ... oof.
Show threadTonyC

@cstross One thing I found out today is that running enough computers for level 4 self-driving *halves* the endurance of an electric car's battery.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-02-27/autonomous-electric-vehicles-will-guzzle-power-instead-of-gas

Autonomous Electric Vehicles Will Guzzle Power Instead of Gas

Limiting the battery drain associated with highly automated computing hardware will be a key challenge for car engineers.

Bloomberg
Feb 27, 2024 at 8:37pmWeb
Show threadQueFeb 27, 2024
@phlebas @cstross it’s not computers, its servers worth of capacity in true self driving solutions. The heat and power loads are material.
Show threadNemoFeb 27, 2024

@phlebas
Laughing like a drain.

Nope. This is perfect. There's just nothing to add to that.
@cstross

Show threadVery Human RobotFeb 27, 2024
@phlebas @cstross
Consider 100 kWh car, 300 mile range, 75 miles per hour.
If I'm using 25 kW on average for the motor (freeway driving) that's 25 kW for self driving.
That's a lot of compute and a lot of heat to somehow exhaust.
Using 50 kWh for two hours of compute?
That doesn't quite pass the sniff test.
Show threadJonFeb 28, 2024
@phlebas @cstross be cautious about that. It's "up to 46%". EV power use of ca. 0.15 kWh/km means that such a computer would have many times the power consumption of a high-end gaming rig (unless you're stuck in traffic for hours, not moving). The cite for that graph is just "Bloomberg NEF" which is a self-hosted "research" operation and I cannot find such a study on their website, so cannot check their assumptions.
Show threadronbrinkmannFeb 28, 2024
@phlebas @cstross yeah I’m VERY skeptical of this estimate. Feels like Bloomberg making shit up (again).
Show threadCharlie StrossFeb 28, 2024
@ronbrinkmann @phlebas Their estimate is probably missing a footnote: "* power consumption estimate based on in-vehicle use of 2004-vintage Intel Itanium CPUs, other platform power consumption may vary."
Show threadTonyCFeb 28, 2024
@ronbrinkmann @cstross It does seem high. I have no way of saying whether or not it is excessively so.