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Apple engineers are working on a mobile robot that could track users around their homes, the people said, asking not to be identified because the Skunkworks project is private. The iPhone maker has also developed an advanced tabletop home device that uses robotics to move the display, they said.
The effort is still in its early stages, and it’s unclear whether a product will eventually be released, but Apple is under pressure to find new revenue streams. The company halted its electric vehicle project in February, and its foray into mixed reality goggles is expected to take years to become a major source of revenue.
Robotics could allow Apple to gain a larger foothold in consumers’ homes and leverage advances in artificial intelligence. However, it is not yet clear what approach will be taken. Officials say robotic smart displays are much more advanced than mobile bots, but they have been added and removed from the company’s product roadmap over the years.
iPhone sales in China in February fell by about one-third compared to the previous month.
iPhone sales in China in February fell by about one-third compared to the previous month.
The robotics work is being done within Apple’s hardware engineering division and the AI and machine learning group, led by John Gianandrea. Matt Costello and Brian Lynch, two executives specializing in consumer products, are overseeing hardware development. Still, Apple is not involved in either project as a company, and the research is still considered to be in the early research stages. A spokesperson declined to comment.
Apple investors reacted calmly to the news, with the stock paring its earlier gains after Bloomberg reported on the robotics research. The stock rose less than 1% to $169.65 at the close in New York. Meanwhile, Roomba maker iRobot’s stock price rose as much as 17% at one point, a sign investors thought the company might benefit from Apple’s interest in the space. However, the rally slowed, with the stock’s share price rising less than 2% by the close.
Before the EV project was scrapped, Apple told executives that its future would revolve around three areas: automotive, home, and mixed reality. But now the car is no longer a reality, and Apple has already released its first mixed reality product, the Vision Pro headset. The focus therefore shifted to other future opportunities, such as how Apple will become more competitive in the smart home market.
The tabletop robot project first excited senior Apple executives, including hardware engineering chief John Tarnas and members of the industrial design team, several years ago. The idea was to have the display mimic a person’s head movements (such as nodding) during a FaceTime session. It will also have the ability to precisely lock on to one person in a crowd during a video call.
But the company has concerns about whether consumers would pay big bucks for such a device. There were also technical challenges associated with balancing the weight of the robot motors on a small stand. The main hurdle is disagreement among Apple executives over whether to move forward with the product’s development, the people said.
Apple has a secret facility near its Cupertino, California, campus that resembles the inside of a house. There, you can test future devices and initiatives for your home. Apple is exploring other ideas for that market, including a new home hub device with an iPad-like display.
Apple’s pursuit of the “next big thing” has been an obsession since the days of Steve Jobs. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult to imagine a product that can rival the iPhone, which accounted for 52% of the company’s $383.3 billion in sales last year.
The cars were expected to sell for about $100,000 each, potentially adding hundreds of billions of dollars to Apple’s revenue. Few other products have this kind of growth potential, but Apple has made significant advances in its products, including the latest Vision Pro, touchscreen Macs, AirPods with built-in cameras, and new health technologies such as non-invasive blood glucose monitoring. We have many projects underway. monitor.
Perhaps the most popular household robot is the Roomba vacuum cleaner, which was introduced over 20 years ago. Amazon agreed to buy iRobot in 2022, but regulatory opposition ultimately killed the deal. Other companies have also floated ideas for humanoid robots that mimic human size and movement.
The silver lining to Apple’s failed auto business is that it has become the basis for other efforts. The company’s AI chip, Neural Engine, which powers iPhones and Macs, was originally developed for cars. This project also laid the groundwork for Vision Pro, as Apple was exploring the use of virtual reality while driving.
Robot development had a similar start, starting around 2019 within Apple’s Titan car project. At the time, the effort was led by Doug Field, now head of EVs at Ford Motor Company.
At the time, Field named a series of executives to work on robotics efforts, from near-silent indoor drones to home robots. The group also included Lynch. Nick Sims, former Google Home product manager. And Dave Scott left Apple in 2021 to briefly run a mobile MRI machine company, then returned in 2022 to work on Vision Pro. Hanns Wolfram Tappeiner, co-founder of AI and robotics company Anki, is also involved.
Shortly after Field left Apple in 2021, his robotics work moved to the Home Devices Group. And at least one of his former hardware teams, which was part of a shuttered car project, has recently been repurposed into work in home appliances and robotics. The car’s operating system, known by some as safetyOS, could also theoretically be customized for robots, according to people familiar with the effort.
The original concept for the robot was a device that could drive completely autonomously without human intervention, similar to a car, and that could function as a video conferencing tool. One very useful idea within Apple was to allow the sink to handle chores like washing dishes. But doing so would require overcoming extremely difficult engineering challenges, something that seems unlikely this decade.
Apple is hiring for robotics-related positions on its website, indicating that it is looking to expand the team working on the project.
According to one job description, “Our team works at the intersection of modern machine learning and robotics to shape the AI that powers the next generation of Apple products.” “We are looking for innovative and hard-working ML and robotics researchers and engineers to help us research, define, and develop complex intelligent robotic systems and experiences in the real world.”
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