I suspect the only reason the idea of Apple as car manager was ever floated is because Jony Ive is a car nerd and probably assumed he could charge Bentley Brooklands prices for a consumer level...
I suspect the only reason the idea of Apple as car manager was ever floated is because Jony Ive is a car nerd and probably assumed he could charge Bentley Brooklands prices for a consumer level vehicle.
I think they're building an android. What's the next logical development of virtual assistants like Siri? Give her a body, so she can help you around the house. She'll stock your fridge, walk your...
We continue to believe there is a huge opportunity with autonomous systems, that Apple has unique capabilities to contribute, and that this is the most ambitious machine learning project ever.
I think they're building an android.
What's the next logical development of virtual assistants like Siri? Give her a body, so she can help you around the house. She'll stock your fridge, walk your dog, fold your laundry, cook for you, tutor your kids, and any other task you feel too lazy to do yourself.
They currently have a job opening for a robotics engineer, but that seems to be purely for the software side. My guess is they'll soon buy one of the most promising robotics start-ups, so they won't have to start the body work from scratch.
Why would you want to basically recreate a human being from scratch ? Why not divide all those tasks across multiple separate technologies ? Creating a robot that can walk and do all those things...
Why would you want to basically recreate a human being from scratch ?
Why not divide all those tasks across multiple separate technologies ?
Creating a robot that can walk and do all those things you mentioned seems far too complicated when you can have a machine to clean, then a different one to cook, etc.
From a business point of view, I understand it's easier to sell one machine than many. That's why I think the economic model that we have isn't the best to support technology development.
You could say that about smartphones as well though. Why would you want a device that is mediocre as a phone, takes mediocre pictures, and is mediocre for browsing the web, when you already have...
You could say that about smartphones as well though. Why would you want a device that is mediocre as a phone, takes mediocre pictures, and is mediocre for browsing the web, when you already have feature phones, cameras, and laptops to do all those things better?
Because those are things you carry with you rather than appliances you have at home. Those are also tools to interact with information rather than physical objects that have to interact with the...
Because those are things you carry with you rather than appliances you have at home.
Those are also tools to interact with information rather than physical objects that have to interact with the physical world, as robotics do.
I’d rather have a hamper I can dump dirty clothes in and it washes and folds them for me. That seems a lot more practical than having Rosie the Robo-Maid mimicking a human form and washing the clothes by robo-hand.
With a smartphone, you get all the functionalities of the things you mentioned combined. The smartphone is the strict addition of all of those. A robot requires additional functions that require...
With a smartphone, you get all the functionalities of the things you mentioned combined. The smartphone is the strict addition of all of those.
A robot requires additional functions that require technology vastly superior to the tasks it's supposed to do : legs that move, arms, intelligence to recognize orders, spacial awareness, etc.
It that case, it's not worth the hassle when you can just upgrade the different tools separately to automate them.
The big advantage of humanoid robots is that all of our environments are created for bipeds/humanoids. You can use everything a human can, no need to adjust your environment to fit the tech....
The big advantage of humanoid robots is that all of our environments are created for bipeds/humanoids. You can use everything a human can, no need to adjust your environment to fit the tech. Applicable everywhere, cheaper, etc.
Arguably most of our environment is better equipped for boxy appliances than it is for people. Urban planning, certainly prioritizes the form of a car over a human body.
Arguably most of our environment is better equipped for boxy appliances than it is for people. Urban planning, certainly prioritizes the form of a car over a human body.
I mean, a car is being driven by a human, or not? I guess we are talking about two different topics. While in transportation and urban planning, cars are the way to go, inside a building there is...
I mean, a car is being driven by a human, or not? I guess we are talking about two different topics. While in transportation and urban planning, cars are the way to go, inside a building there is no better way to use our current infrastructure than to build a humanoid robot. On the smart home aspect:
You can use kitchen appliances, clean the house, walk around the house (a problem, if you're on wheels), walk through slim openings, and especially just use virtually everything that is currently being used by humans.
Maybe. I think most initial practical applications for the kind of fully moving robotics will be in transportation and logistics. And for stuff like that, robot-trucks and buses are a bigger deal...
I guess we are talking about two different topics.
Maybe. I think most initial practical applications for the kind of fully moving robotics will be in transportation and logistics. And for stuff like that, robot-trucks and buses are a bigger deal than anything.
inside a building there is no better way to use our current infrastructure than to build a humanoid robot.
That's a lot of complexity for not much value addition. Most of the stuff people use is actually not very well designed to start with, and they make a lot of functionality compromises to be more human usable. A vacuum, for example, would be able to get into a lot more places as a little drone than as something with a long hip-level handle. You'd have a much easier time cleaning tile grout as a little drone with prehensile pipe-cleaner tentacles than as a humanoid robot with a human brush to do the scrubbing. If I wanted a humanoid to do the work, it would be way way cheaper to just hire a trustworthy human. For one thing, I can speak to them in a human language instead of needing to program them.
And that's for housework. For a lot of other stuff you can probably interface in other ways. In Portal 2, for example the AI core, Wheatley, travels around on rails. Installing arms or other "limbs" throughout the house would allow it to interact without needing to build an android to do it.
Of course, in a few decades all that stuff will look about as dated as the in-home intercom systems people had in the 80s. . .
An android seems very unlikely, and the robotics job opening seems to be for their AR development, needing expertise in "scene understanding, classification or activity recognition". If anything,...
An android seems very unlikely, and the robotics job opening seems to be for their AR development, needing expertise in "scene understanding, classification or activity recognition".
There is a lot of room for robotics in smart home features aside from having a maid. I can imagine robotics experts being consulted or doing work that integrates into things like curtains and...
There is a lot of room for robotics in smart home features aside from having a maid. I can imagine robotics experts being consulted or doing work that integrates into things like curtains and blinds, thermostats, or even to intelligently adjust the position of mics and speakers on stuff like HomePod to direct them at people or in response to the shifting acoustics in the room.
Of the big 3, Apple is the only smart assistant with any kind of claim even that they're protecting user data. I don't think that they will be on the cutting edge of AI assistants compared to...
Of the big 3, Apple is the only smart assistant with any kind of claim even that they're protecting user data. I don't think that they will be on the cutting edge of AI assistants compared to google or amazon.
I don't doubt that they will release new innovative hardware products someday. I just don't think a dog-walking smart bot will come from them.
Of note, this article is over a month old at this point—I saw this post and had the gross sinking feeling of "layoffs....again?", until I realized the article's age. While the age of the article...
Of note, this article is over a month old at this point—I saw this post and had the gross sinking feeling of "layoffs....again?", until I realized the article's age. While the age of the article does not necessarily reduce its poignancy (200 jobs is a material impact, and yeah, apple does not get things right all the time), it feels like posting an old news post is just stirring up mud and reopening old wounds, and may not lead to the nuanced discussions that Tildes is seeking to have, especially because a month at the speed of Apple is an eternity, and notable pundits have all already taken their shots at this piece.
It seems that Tildes should have an expected convention of posting old "news"/old posts, or the site should also scrape post dates and put them next to word count, so it's extremely obvious that this isn't the "newest news".
Ah, well spotted. Vote retracted. Isn't the article's age supposed to show under the headline when it's more than a few days old? Or has that feature been removed from Tildes?
Ah, well spotted. Vote retracted.
Isn't the article's age supposed to show under the headline when it's more than a few days old? Or has that feature been removed from Tildes?
The feature is dependent on one of the scrapers picking up the date sucessfully, and it looks like they didn't work on this one. I can also add the date manually (and I'll do that now). In the...
The feature is dependent on one of the scrapers picking up the date sucessfully, and it looks like they didn't work on this one. I can also add the date manually (and I'll do that now). In the future I'd definitely like (trusted) users be able to edit the "content metadata" as well.
Generally, it will show the date if it's more than 3 days older than the time the post was made.
Oh, yeah, I totally recall seeing this before—sorry for starting drama in this instance then, my comment was certainly an impulse reaction from my confusion. Thank you! (However, I still think the...
Generally, it will show the date if it's more than 3 days older than the time the post was made.
Oh, yeah, I totally recall seeing this before—sorry for starting drama in this instance then, my comment was certainly an impulse reaction from my confusion. Thank you!
(However, I still think the discussion is worth it—because age does have contextual relevance to a post.)
I'd second displaying the age of an article next to word count if that's technically feasible. It's a feature I really wish search engines had, might at least get it on Tildes.
I'd second displaying the age of an article next to word count if that's technically feasible. It's a feature I really wish search engines had, might at least get it on Tildes.
Yeah, I completely agree here. However, I don't think this post necessarily falls in that case yet. I see iterations of this most often on HN, where posters title their posts to include the post...
This doesn't have to be true in every case. There can be a lot of value in discussing an article historically, and comparing that with current events and the shape of things then versus the shape of things now.
Yeah, I completely agree here. However, I don't think this post necessarily falls in that case yet. I see iterations of this most often on HN, where posters title their posts to include the post year, and that colors the conversation in that regard—but that's is year-scale, not month old news. (Nor is the HN solution the correct way, necessarily.)
Nor do I think that this article should not have been posted—it has/had the potential to spark a good discussion. My personal opinion is that the age of the article is also relevant here, because both the article and post are written as "current news", but this is not the case—I just think more context is in order.
Isn't this a good thing though? Doesn't it give users more material to reference when discussing an older article?
Perhaps? I just see it as prime potential for someone to pick up someone else's opinion and use it as their own.
At least anyone working on self driving cars at apple could get a new job next week.
I suspect the only reason the idea of Apple as car manager was ever floated is because Jony Ive is a car nerd and probably assumed he could charge Bentley Brooklands prices for a consumer level vehicle.
I think they're building an android.
What's the next logical development of virtual assistants like Siri? Give her a body, so she can help you around the house. She'll stock your fridge, walk your dog, fold your laundry, cook for you, tutor your kids, and any other task you feel too lazy to do yourself.
They currently have a job opening for a robotics engineer, but that seems to be purely for the software side. My guess is they'll soon buy one of the most promising robotics start-ups, so they won't have to start the body work from scratch.
Why would you want to basically recreate a human being from scratch ?
Why not divide all those tasks across multiple separate technologies ?
Creating a robot that can walk and do all those things you mentioned seems far too complicated when you can have a machine to clean, then a different one to cook, etc.
From a business point of view, I understand it's easier to sell one machine than many. That's why I think the economic model that we have isn't the best to support technology development.
You could say that about smartphones as well though. Why would you want a device that is mediocre as a phone, takes mediocre pictures, and is mediocre for browsing the web, when you already have feature phones, cameras, and laptops to do all those things better?
Because those are things you carry with you rather than appliances you have at home.
Those are also tools to interact with information rather than physical objects that have to interact with the physical world, as robotics do.
I’d rather have a hamper I can dump dirty clothes in and it washes and folds them for me. That seems a lot more practical than having Rosie the Robo-Maid mimicking a human form and washing the clothes by robo-hand.
With a smartphone, you get all the functionalities of the things you mentioned combined. The smartphone is the strict addition of all of those.
A robot requires additional functions that require technology vastly superior to the tasks it's supposed to do : legs that move, arms, intelligence to recognize orders, spacial awareness, etc.
It that case, it's not worth the hassle when you can just upgrade the different tools separately to automate them.
The big advantage of humanoid robots is that all of our environments are created for bipeds/humanoids. You can use everything a human can, no need to adjust your environment to fit the tech. Applicable everywhere, cheaper, etc.
Arguably most of our environment is better equipped for boxy appliances than it is for people. Urban planning, certainly prioritizes the form of a car over a human body.
I mean, a car is being driven by a human, or not? I guess we are talking about two different topics. While in transportation and urban planning, cars are the way to go, inside a building there is no better way to use our current infrastructure than to build a humanoid robot. On the smart home aspect:
You can use kitchen appliances, clean the house, walk around the house (a problem, if you're on wheels), walk through slim openings, and especially just use virtually everything that is currently being used by humans.
Maybe. I think most initial practical applications for the kind of fully moving robotics will be in transportation and logistics. And for stuff like that, robot-trucks and buses are a bigger deal than anything.
That's a lot of complexity for not much value addition. Most of the stuff people use is actually not very well designed to start with, and they make a lot of functionality compromises to be more human usable. A vacuum, for example, would be able to get into a lot more places as a little drone than as something with a long hip-level handle. You'd have a much easier time cleaning tile grout as a little drone with prehensile pipe-cleaner tentacles than as a humanoid robot with a human brush to do the scrubbing. If I wanted a humanoid to do the work, it would be way way cheaper to just hire a trustworthy human. For one thing, I can speak to them in a human language instead of needing to program them.
And that's for housework. For a lot of other stuff you can probably interface in other ways. In Portal 2, for example the AI core, Wheatley, travels around on rails. Installing arms or other "limbs" throughout the house would allow it to interact without needing to build an android to do it.
Of course, in a few decades all that stuff will look about as dated as the in-home intercom systems people had in the 80s. . .
It's not cheap but I could probably throw together a human from scratch in 9 months or so that can efficiently do all of those things.
Siri struggles to preform basic voice-assistance tasks, how are they going to manage a cooking android when they can't even set an alarm properly?
An android seems very unlikely, and the robotics job opening seems to be for their AR development, needing expertise in "scene understanding, classification or activity recognition".
If anything, it's probably more evidence they're heading towards smart glasses .
There is a lot of room for robotics in smart home features aside from having a maid. I can imagine robotics experts being consulted or doing work that integrates into things like curtains and blinds, thermostats, or even to intelligently adjust the position of mics and speakers on stuff like HomePod to direct them at people or in response to the shifting acoustics in the room.
Of the big 3, Apple is the only smart assistant with any kind of claim even that they're protecting user data. I don't think that they will be on the cutting edge of AI assistants compared to google or amazon.
I don't doubt that they will release new innovative hardware products someday. I just don't think a dog-walking smart bot will come from them.
Does anybody know what percentage of Apple autonomous vehicle employees the 200 represent?
Of note, this article is over a month old at this point—I saw this post and had the gross sinking feeling of "layoffs....again?", until I realized the article's age. While the age of the article does not necessarily reduce its poignancy (200 jobs is a material impact, and yeah, apple does not get things right all the time), it feels like posting an old news post is just stirring up mud and reopening old wounds, and may not lead to the nuanced discussions that Tildes is seeking to have, especially because a month at the speed of Apple is an eternity, and notable pundits have all already taken their shots at this piece.
It seems that Tildes should have an expected convention of posting old "news"/old posts, or the site should also scrape post dates and put them next to word count, so it's extremely obvious that this isn't the "newest news".
(@Deimos, for comment, possibly?)
Ah, well spotted. Vote retracted.
Isn't the article's age supposed to show under the headline when it's more than a few days old? Or has that feature been removed from Tildes?
The feature is dependent on one of the scrapers picking up the date sucessfully, and it looks like they didn't work on this one. I can also add the date manually (and I'll do that now). In the future I'd definitely like (trusted) users be able to edit the "content metadata" as well.
Generally, it will show the date if it's more than 3 days older than the time the post was made.
(@cptcobalt)
Oh, yeah, I totally recall seeing this before—sorry for starting drama in this instance then, my comment was certainly an impulse reaction from my confusion. Thank you!
(However, I still think the discussion is worth it—because age does have contextual relevance to a post.)
I'd second displaying the age of an article next to word count if that's technically feasible. It's a feature I really wish search engines had, might at least get it on Tildes.
Yeah, I completely agree here. However, I don't think this post necessarily falls in that case yet. I see iterations of this most often on HN, where posters title their posts to include the post year, and that colors the conversation in that regard—but that's is year-scale, not month old news. (Nor is the HN solution the correct way, necessarily.)
Nor do I think that this article should not have been posted—it has/had the potential to spark a good discussion. My personal opinion is that the age of the article is also relevant here, because both the article and post are written as "current news", but this is not the case—I just think more context is in order.
Perhaps? I just see it as prime potential for someone to pick up someone else's opinion and use it as their own.