There are still a lot of myths and misunderstandings about EV infrastructure. Few people in the EV business have as much experience as Darryll Harrison. Before becoming ChargePoint’s director of global communications in 2016, Harrison managed comms for the launch of three different electric vehicles. He worked at Nissan in 2008 and 2009 leading up… Continue reading Public EV Charging Is Often Free: Observations From ChargePoint
Tag: Apple
Tesla downgrade by RBC means more analysts on Wall Street have ‘sell’ ratings than ‘buy’ on stock
Robyn Beck | Pool | Reuters
Tesla founder Elon Musk speaks at the unveiling event by “The Boring Company” for the test tunnel of a proposed underground transportation network across Los Angeles County, in Hawthorne, California, December 18, 2018.
Tesla was downgraded to underperform by RBC Capital, which said that the electric car maker has finally started to give some straight talk to investors about its future growth, but many are still not listening because they are still too enthralled by the company's founder and CEO Elon Musk.
Analyst Joseph Spak writes:
“It's not that we don't believe Tesla can grow over time, our model shows solid LT growth. But the current valuation already considers overly lofty expectations. For instance, let's assume 1mm [Model 3] units @$55k ASP, 12 percent EBIT margins, no interest/equity raise all by 2025. This is undoubtedly solid earnings, but at a more 'mature' 15x P/E, the discounted back value is ~$195, meaning even in an optimistic case at least 1/3rd of today's price is an 'Elon premium'.”
Tesla shares fell 1.5 percent in premarket trading Wednesday following the call. Through Tuesday, the stock was down 10 percent on the year to $298.92.
“The company seems to be more tactful with messaging which is a long-term positive, but means downward pressure to growth expectations – which in our view are too high to justify current levels, let alone to add to positions,” wrote Spak.
In the latest round of cost-cutting measures, Tesla said last week that it would cut 7 percent of its workforce and discontinue production of some other models to focus on the Model 3. Musk also said that the company likely achieved a “tiny profit” in the fourth quarter.
“For years, Tesla sold the dream of transportation disruption and fantastic growth. This served the stock well turning Tesla into a top 6 (at times top 3) valuable auto OEM despite delivering a fraction of units of others and nary a profit,” wrote Spak. “A stock should of course discount future cash flows and the market took the promises of Tesla and their future growth potential to justify lofty valuations while Tesla took capital needed to support their endeavors. But the rubber appears to be hitting the road as the realities of Tesla becoming a volume player, the challenges to scale and deliver high volume at high ASPs/margins are coming to a head.”
More buys than sells
RBC lowed its price target to $245 from $290. With Spak's rating change to underperform (the equivalent of a sell), there are now more analysts on Wall Street that say sell Tesla, than buy it. Eight analysts say “buy,” seven say “hold” and nine now say “sell,” according to TipRanks.com. It's rare for a stock as popular as Tesla to have a majority of analysts that say sell. The negative rating is still relatively rare, with most analysts typically using a “hold” rating to voice their displeasure with a stock. For comparison, Apple has zero sell ratings, according to TipRanks.
“Whether its cutting the price of their lineup by $2k/unit, admission the federal tax credit expiring will hurt, acknowledgment that Tesla can't sell at $35k Model 3 profitably and costs need to come down, or language around full-self driving – we'd classify recent commentary and actions by the company as more realistic,” stated the RBC note. “This is likely to cause a review of model assumptions leading to negative expectation revisions.”
— With reporting by Michael Bloom
Apple’s dismissal of 200 self-driving car employees points to a shift in its AI strategy
Bloomberg | Getty Images
John Giannandrea, senior vice president of artificial intelligence and machine learning strategy at Apple, speaks at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2017.
It's not often you hear about layoffs at Apple.
So it came as a surprise Wednesday when CNBC learned that Apple was removing 200 employees from its self-driving car unit. Apple confirmed the staffing change, but reading between the lines of a spokesperson's statement, it sounds like the move is the latest in the company's broader goal to improve its artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities as it faces increased competition from rivals Google and Amazon.
“As the team focuses their work on several key areas for 2019, some groups are being moved to projects in other parts of the company, where they will support machine learning and other initiatives, across all of Apple,” the company spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC Wednesday.
Self-driving car technology may still be an important initiative at Apple. But reading between the lines, it looks like it's taking a back seat a Apple beefs up its general AI staff.
“I think they're making the decision that, at least in the near term, it's better to have these people doing AI in other projects,” said Gene Munster, a venture capitalist and analyst at Loup Ventures.
Apple's self-driving car project, called Titan internally, started out with the desire to create an Apple-branded electric car, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2015. But over the last few years, Apple has scaled back its ambition and lost leaders and other employees in the process. Today, the unit mostly explores the underlying technology that makes self-driving cars possible. CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly called self-driving “the mother of all AI projects.”
Since Apple started its self-driving division, the consumer AI space has exploded through the rise of digital assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant and devices like Amazon's Echo. Apple's own digital Assistant, Siri, had a head start when it launched on the iPhone 4S back in 2011, but has not kept up with the competition.
To address the shortfall, Applehired Google's head of AI John Giannandrea away from the search giant in April. Within a few months, Apple had reorganized its entire AI and machine learning teams under Giannandrea, the company announced to TechCrunch. And just last month, Giannandrea was promoted to Apple's executive team as vice president of machine learning and artificial intelligence strategy.
Self-driving may still be an important piece to Apple's AI research. The company said in its statement Wednesday: “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.”
But as far as products go, competition in self-driving and electric vehicles has grown dramatically in the last four years.
Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car company, recently opened up its self-driving car service to the public in Phoenix, Ariz., and is widely considered to be the leaders in self driving. Legacy car companies like GM working on self-driving technology. And it's not just Tesla making electric cars. Porsche, Audi, Mercedes and other legacy car companies have all announced electric vehicles. It's hard to imagine how Apple would stand out.
“The sense that I had is they're not as far along as I had hoped,” Munster said of Apple's decision to remove the 200 employees out of its car division. “But they still have initiative there.”
Giannandrea's rapid rise at Apple is the biggest signal yet that Apple intends to invest a lot of time, money and talent in improving AI. Plus, according to leaked comments from Cook at a recent company all-hands meeting reported by Bloomberg, Apple plans to continue hiring in AI “at a strong pace” even as it slows down hiring in other divisions.
In short, we're seeing Apple eliminate jobs in self-driving and increase the number of people working more broadly on AI.
It may already be paying off. Late last year, a study from Munster's company, Loup Ventures, showed Siri vastly improved its ability to correctly answer a series of 800 questions. The Loup study said Siri answered 74.6 percent of the questions correctly, up 22 percentage points from just nine months earlier. By comparison, Google Assistant answered 87.9 percent of the questions correctly. Alexa got 72.5 percent of the questions right.
It's not just about getting questions right, though. The messier problem for Apple is training its AI while convincing users that it's keeping their data secure.
Google trains its AI systems in part using the massive amounts of public data available on YouTube and the Google search engine. (It's also started using a program that strives to protect users' data.)
But Apple has taken a hard stance against unfettered data collection, and promotes its concern over user privacy as a reason to buy its products. In a speech in Brussels last year, Cook called the privacy practices of companies like Google “surveillance,” for example. It also put up a giant ad about its privacy stance in in Las Vegas during CES earlier this month.
So Apple will have to continue to improve its AI while sticking to its goal of keeping people's personal information private.
“I think it's very clear Apple is a believer in AI and most of the products will be very subtle about how AI is used,” Munster said.
WATCH: Apple CEO Tim Cook writes op-ed calling for tech privacy regulation
Apple CEO Tim Cook writes op-ed calling for tech privacy regulation
6:11 PM ET Thu, 17 Jan 2019 | 01:30
China’s Didi, BAIC set up joint venture to work on NEV projects
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Didi Chuxing said it had set up a joint venture (JV) with Beijing Electric Vehicle Co., a unit of state-owned BAIC, to work on new energy vehicle and artificial intelligence projects. The JV, BAIC-Xiaoju New Energy Auto Technology Co. Ltd, aims to develop “next-generation connected-car systems”, Didi, China’s largest ride-hailing operator,… Continue reading China’s Didi, BAIC set up joint venture to work on NEV projects
Apple’s self-driving car program just took a hard right – Fast Company
That’s because the Cupertino company just laid off more than 200 employees who were working on the project, CNBC reports. In addition to the layoffs, it also appears that a number of additional employees working in Apple’s car program, known as Project Titan, have been reassigned to other departments in the company. CNBC says Apple… Continue reading Apple’s self-driving car program just took a hard right – Fast Company
Tesla applies for series of patents for new AI chip in Autopilot Hardware 3.0
Tesla is working on an important new product that it claims will enable them to bring full self-driving capability to its vehicles: a new AI chip, or “neural net accelerator’, to be released in the Autopilot Hardware 3.0 computer upgrade. We have now uncovered a series of new patent applications from Tesla about this new computer. As… Continue reading Tesla applies for series of patents for new AI chip in Autopilot Hardware 3.0
Chrysler Pacifica Named ‘Family Car of the Year’ by Cars.com for Second Consecutive Year
January 24, 2019 , Auburn Hills, Mich. – Cars.com editors announced today that the 2019 Chrysler Pacifica is once again its ‘Family Car of the Year.’ This is the second year in a row that the Chrysler Pacifica has earned the ‘Family Car of the Year’ title, building on its 2017 model-year introduction win of Cars.com’s ‘Best of’… Continue reading Chrysler Pacifica Named ‘Family Car of the Year’ by Cars.com for Second Consecutive Year
Apple cuts 200 staff from its Project Titan autonomous car division
Apple’s secretive efforts to develop a self-driving car — its so-called ‘Project Titan’ — have taken a hard turn in 2019 after it emerged that the iPhone-maker has reassigned 200 employees previously involved in its development. That’s according to CNBC which, citing sources, reported that a portion of the 200 staff were moved to other… Continue reading Apple cuts 200 staff from its Project Titan autonomous car division
Apple shrinks autonomous vehicle team by 200 employees
Apple has dismissed as many as 200 people from Project Titan, its secretive autonomous vehicle project, reports CNBC. In a statement Apple confirmed the change, and said that the affected employees would be moved on to projects in other parts of the company. The changes are relatively small, given that as many as 5,000 people… Continue reading Apple shrinks autonomous vehicle team by 200 employees
Apple just dismissed more than 200 employees from its autonomous vehicle group
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Tim Cook, CEO, Apple
Apple dismissed just over 200 employees this week from Project Titan, its stealthy autonomous vehicle group, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
An Apple spokesperson acknowledged the lay-offs and said the company still sees opportunity in the space:
“We have an incredibly talented team working on autonomous systems and associated technologies at Apple. As the team focuses their work on several key areas for 2019, some groups are being moved to projects in other parts of the company, where they will support machine learning and other initiatives, across all of Apple,” the spokesperson said.
“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,” they added.
In August 2018, Apple enlisted a Tesla engineering vice president and Apple veteran, Doug Field, to lead the Titan team alongside Bob Mansfield. This week's dismissals from the group were seen, internally, as anticipated restructuring under the relatively new leadership.
Other employees who were impacted by the restructuring of Project Titan are staying at Apple, but moving to different parts of the company.
Of late, Apple CEO Tim Cook has touted his company's initiatives in health as the key to its future growth. “I believe, if you zoom out into the future, and you look back, and you ask the question, “What was Apple's greatest contribution to mankind?” it will be about health,” Cook told CNBC's Jim Cramer.
Tim Cook teases new Apple services to come in 2019
12:15 PM ET Thu, 10 Jan 2019 | 01:08
Meanwhile, Apple executives have remained mum in recent months on the company's car prospects, which appear to have been scaled back from the initial rumored vehicle to a focus on software. In 2016, Apple laid off employees from the same group, shifting its strategy. Fully self-driving cars remain experimental, even for major players in the field such as Waymo, Cruise and Tesla.
Venture investors and strategic investors from the traditional automotive world have poured billions into start-ups developing self-driving vehicles including: Zoox, Pony.AI, Aurora, May Mobility, Embark and others.
— Paul Eisenstein and CNBC's Jordan Novet contributed to this report.