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My heart goes out to those people. I am sure they are dedicated and talented individuals, but I don't understand why this is news. It's a company, and a proje
by kemiller2002 2y ago
My heart goes out to those people. I am sure they are dedicated and talented individuals, but I don't understand why this is news. It's a company, and a project got canceled. It's what happens.
- kypro 2y agoNot necessarily disagreeing, but I believe when it was originally announced they said that the team on this project would be mostly migrated to their AI division.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- danpalmer 2y agoThey were mostly redeployed. The car division was ~2000 people and ~600 are being laid off.
- reaperducer 2y agoBecause they're human beings, not KPI points. Moreover, 600 is a lot of human beings, and it follows a recent trend of tech companies' mass layoffs from which Apple has mostly avoided.
- jjice 2y agoHuh, I didn't realize that Apple had mostly avoided it, but you're definitely right. In their defense, the other large tech companies just started trimming fat from everywhere it seems, where as this seems like a direct business decision to abandon an entire project. Still rough for those involved, but it feels less bad than the other mass layoffs to me.
- gedy 2y ago> started trimming fat I really wish you and others would not equate layoffs with "trimming fat". It's kind of disgusting, and especially when these huge corps are still full of others doing plenty of non-meaningful work. Plenty of layoffs are illogical and due to internal politics.
- jjice 2y agoApologies for the language. I didn't intend it to come off that way. I was using the term in a generic way to mean "getting rid of stuff _they_ don't want". I didn't intend to refer to the actual staff as lesser.
- gedy 2y agoAll good - I'm reacting to people who remain at a place after layoffs then scoff at the people let go, like it couldn't happen to them. Usually sounds like drinking too much of HR's Kool-aid.
- Retric 2y agoIn context finding new jobs for ~1400 out of ~2000 people working on a car protect seems reasonable simply because it’s very different from their usual project. I doubt they have much need for mechanical engineers, drivers, mechanics, etc. Still unpleasant for those laid off, but I like seeing companies take these kinds of risks.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> 600 is a lot of human beings, and it follows a recent trend of tech companies' mass layoffs It’s absurd to describe this as a mass layoff even relative to the 5,000 people Apple employed for this project alone. If a company can’t lay off a few hundred people after cancelling a major project, we’ve effectively banned it from taking risks.
- rchaud 2y agoMass layoffs are not illegal, so I'm not sure what you're getting at with the bit about companies taking risks.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> I'm not sure what you're getting at with the bit about companies taking risks It’s clearly being criticised. If a culture rejects a company hiring five thousand and taking a bet with them for a decade, only for the bet to fail and six hundred be let go, that’s problematic.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- nerdjon 2y agoIt is still important news, however it seems to me this shouldn't be grouped into the same discussion as all of the other tech layoffs since this was tied to a canceled project. Especially given that the car project was apparently 2000 people from the project, not being able to find other positions for about a quarter of those people is I think valid. I mean yeah it is unfortunate for the people affected, but projects are canceled. It is entirely possible, especially given some of the unique skills needed specifically for a car, there are people who just won't have a place anywhere else.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y agoComing from defense, projects or contracts end all of the time but usually everyone is able to find other projects to work on. Why are they hiring for a bazillion positions while laying off these people? https://jobs.apple.com/en-us/search https://jobs.apple.com/en-us/search
- rescripting 2y agoBecause they’re different skill sets? The people test driving the cars aren’t hardware engineers.
- dewey 2y agoYou don’t know what kind of jobs got layed off. They could be very car specific and not useful for other product lines. I doubt they layed off 600 software engineers.
- brookst 2y agoThe project was rumored to have 5000 employees. It’s too much of a leap to assume that nobody working on it was moved to other work. And while any layoffs suck, 12% or so not finding a new place in the company seems remarkably good for a defunct project in a vertical like automotive.
- espadrine 2y agoI have heard that some jobs were able to find a new home. The work that was needed for Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) in the car, was adapted within the Vision Pro. But not all expertise translates easily.
- Ajay-p 2y agoIt's noteworthy because it's Apple, and it's self driving cars. If this has been 600 employees let go from something else it may not have gotten so much attention. But this is Apple, the world's largest company and it's about its mythical car project.
- mupuff1234 2y ago> the world's largest company That would be msft currently.
- mynameisvlad 2y agoDoes it really make a big difference if Apple is first or second? That really wasn’t GP’s point.
- Vaslo 2y agoThe article mentions that incorrectly as well. Or is that what GP is?
- yareal 2y agoGP is grand parent. It refers to the post above the one you respond to. Your post is my parent post, the post you responded to is my GP post.
- mupuff1234 2y agoWe might have not seen these layoffs if their stock was humming along nicely, but that hasn't been the case this year. So yeah, the fact that they are relatively "struggling" and aren't the top company anymore has some relevance.
- mynameisvlad 2y agoThey’re the second biggest company in the world now, and by not that much. They’re doing fine. It would be a different story if they suddenly dropped a magnitude or more, but going from first to second has basically no relevance on the content of the comment. It would have read the exact same if it said “second biggest company”.
- TiredOfLife 2y agoIt's Apple. They are good. They would never do layoffs like those evil companies like Google, Microsoft or Facebook. /s
- commandlinefan 2y agoI'm always surprised they didn't find somewhere else to put the people when this happens, though. Surely Apple has other projects that aren't cancelled?
- ToucanLoucan 2y agoI can't imagine the sort of people who design cars are going to have much to do elsewhere in Apple, unfortunately.