As leaders in the cash for used cars industry in Honolulu for a quarter of a century, you never could have convinced us all those years ago that there would someday be a self-driving car. How things have changed! While lots of companies have jumped on this relatively new technology including Uber, GM, and Google, it seems it may not be going so well for Apple.
According to news reports, Apple’s quarterly revenues were $9 billion short of the $93 billion the company had hoped to hit over a 90-day period. Just as we transformed from 2018 to 2019, Apple CEO Tim Cook made an announcement most of us thought we would never hear: Apple is facing a challenging future.
While the turmoil isn’t all about self-driving car technology, clearly things aren’t going as well with automation as everyone had hoped. In mid-April this year, Apple will end 190 positions at its Sunnyvale and Santa Clara facilities, the majority of the engineering jobs.
Apple began focusing on autonomous car technology about five years ago, a program referred to as “Project Titan.” In a recent filing with the California Employment Development Department, it was revealed that the positions terminated include 22 software engineers, 33 hardware engineers, 31 product design engineers, and 38 engineering program managers.
According to Bloomberg, Apple Inc. is pushing to accelerate the development of its electric car and is refocusing the project around full self-driving capabilities, according to people familiar with the matter, aiming to solve a technical challenge that has bedeviled the auto industry.
For the past several years, Apple’s car team had explored two simultaneous paths: creating a model with limited self-driving capabilities focused on steering and acceleration — similar to many current cars — or a version with full self-driving ability that doesn’t require human intervention.
Hopefully, things will turn around for the company’s car technology division.
In 2014, Apple began working on “Project Titan,” with upwards of 1,000 car experts and engineers developing an electric vehicle at a secret location near the company’s Cupertino headquarters.
The Apple Car project has shifted and changed multiple times over the course of the last several years due to internal strife and leadership issues, but development is on track. Though 2016 rumors suggested Apple had shelved plans for a car, by 2020, it was back on.
Possible implementations of the technology include personal self-driving vehicles, shared robotaxis, and connected vehicle platoons. Several projects to develop a fully self-driving commercial car are in various stages of development, but there are no self-driving cars available for everyday consumers.
Autonomy in vehicles is often categorized in six levels, according to a system developed by SAE International (SAE J3016, revised periodically). The SAE levels can be roughly understood as Level 0 – no automation; Level 1 – hands-on/shared control; Level 2 – hands-off; Level 3 – eyes off; Level 4 – mind off, and Level 5 – steering wheel optional.
Are you looking to sell a used car for cash in Oahu? At CarMark Hawaii we make it easy and convenient. Whether a Honda, Toyota, Ford, Chevy, Lexus, GM, or any other make, we’re ready to work with you today! Leave with cash in hand.
