Tuesday during an appearance on CNN, Steve “Woz” Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, was asked what he thought of Elon Musk and Woz didn’t miss the chance to blast Musk for his many promises in the 2010s that self-driving cars were just over the horizon.
“I’ve never actually met him and spoke with him. I admire some things that he’s done for the world, changing us towards electric cars,” Wozniak told the CNN hosts.
“But you know, his real motivations inside—is he really a purist of trying to clean the air and all that—gets shadowed by a lot of other things. And he basically got a lot of money from myself for a car, I believed things he said. That a car would drive itself across the country by the end of 2016. Oh, I had to upgrade to that model. You know, $50,000 and then it wouldn’t do anything,” Wozniak said.
But it didn’t stop there. Wozniak explained the promises that seemed to just keep coming.
“I could tell it would never make it across the country, and he said ‘Here we have a new one with eight cameras, it’ll make across the country by the end of 2017,’” Wozniak said. “I actually believed those things, and it’s not even close to reality. And boy, if you want a study of AI gone wrong and taking a lot of claims and trying to kill you every chance it can, get a Tesla.”
MacDailyNews Note: Woz’s comments about Musk begin at the 8:20 mark:
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Complaining to Elon about self driving cars is like blaming Boeing or Airbus because planes still crash. Making planes is hard, making self-driving cars is hard, Woz.
Woz is not complaining that self driving cars aren’t here, he’s complaining that Elon promised they would be, yet failed to deliver.
MDN’s headline explains it perfectly and succinctly.
Do you feel the same way and agree Apple promised self driving cars, clever denial clause built in not citing a specific date, yet, here we are 10 years later and NOTHING.
Hey Woz, get Apple’s house in order that never shipped one electric car, before bitching about a visionary pioneer getting it done…
Apple hasn’t promised a thing about self-driving cars. All you’ve read are leaks from third parties.
GoeB is a leaky anus.
Yes, correct. I posted as such below (May 2 at 5:40 PM) and more detail Cook publicly acknowledging working on car technology after NYT declared dead…
Of course it’s hard. That’s not the issue. The point is that he claimed it was imminent, year after year.
A very odd comparison. Has anyone actually promised to provide a plane that will never crash? I suspect that they are probably a bit careful around that theme at least since the White Star Line claimed the had a ship that wouldn’t sink. Although of course they actually didn’t they just allowed a meme written in the press to work for them in the minds of the people by not discouraging the notion. Which I guess takes us fall or is it fool circle back to Musk.
Just surprised Woz allowed himself to be one of those gullible Titanic passengers.
Elon only cares about his own ego. His pitch to investors is that his companies will be successful because he is the one that runs them. Tesla wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is today without Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, whom Elon threw out in a boardroom coup.
Becoming a habit isn’t it.
Maybe a little of the “pot calling the kettle black” thing here. Apple “cracked the TV” claim has so far been a complete lunker and their own car thing is still undefined.
Actual car maybe, but materially it’s only a software offering that–so far–is found only in OTHER’s products. Maybe he’s upset CarPlay is NOT in Tesla vehicles?
Apple never claimed they ‘cracked the TV.” Steve Jobs supposedly told his biographer that he had. No other info given. Likely content providers would have had to sign up for Jobs’ vision. When they didn’t (think skinny bundles + full participation in Apple’s TV app), Jobs’ vision went unrealized. Unlike with Musk and autonomous driving, it was never promised to buyers. Apple never mentioned it. It was an aside in Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson. Nothing more.
So, there’s no “pot calling the kettle black” thing here whatsoever.
“Apple never claimed they ‘cracked the TV.” Steve Jobs supposedly told his biographer that he had.”
Supposedly? To the semantic pinhead that arrogantly self claims the title of critical thinker — “Apple never claimed” because a five letter corporation word on paper cannot speak. Jobs founder of Apple Corporation, did indeed speak on the topic privately according to multiple sources not revealed.
“Unlike with Musk and autonomous driving, it was never promised to buyers.”
Yes, Apple Project Titan has yet to openly discuss self-driving research. But around 5,000 employees were reported to be working on the project in 2018 and multiple high level car executives were either hired or resigned since 2014.
“Apple never mentioned it.”
Dead wrong.
2017: The New York Times suggested that Apple had stopped developing its own self-driving car. “In response to such reports, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged publicly that year that the company was working on autonomous-car technology.”
“In August 2018, the BBC reported that Apple had 66 road-registered driverless cars, with 111 drivers registered to operate those cars.”
What else you got sanctimonious 🐂💩 for brains?…
Considering how far removed he is from Apple these days and how critical when he deems it necessary I very much doubt he feels remotely that way inclined. In the early days Tesla copied Apples media and technical presentation of it’s/Musks products he was happy to take Apple’s high value market perceptions onboard to try to steal some of the glitter as Tesla struggled to survive, while predictably downplaying the fact his own product was a glorified electric Lotus so as to claim all the glory for himself. But those days are long gone and Woz is more than happy to give credit where it’s due and deserved, not a quality shared by Musk sadly. Fact is Musk is brilliant at times and admirable for what he has achieved but he is still essentially a snake oil salesman when it suits him… which is pretty often as NASA has discovered.
Though retired, Woz is still an Apple guy. This “blast” (fake, manipulative media language) makes sense as Apple is still working on its own car and until they actually produce something, all that can be done is talk down the competition. I don’t like the unfulfilled promises either, but this kind of moonshot goal can only be achieved by an assertive, demanding leader. Apple doesn’t have that, it’s why so many products have been languishing and why we shouldn’t expect a car for a long time, probably no sooner than 4-5 years.
My Tesla does a pretty damn good job of FSD — however, it’s not perfect. Luckily, I enjoy driving the car so much that even though the feature works remarkably well that I choose not to use it as much as I could. Watching people’s faces who have never seen the feature in action before . . . it’s pretty priceless. Not ready for primetime perhaps, but still a heckuva parlor trick.
Wozniak loves being in the “news.” Clearly he’s not very good at playing politics though. He’s rather obvious.
That’s a pretty weak criticism of Woz, considering how much that Elon is a media hog.
Likewise, at least Woz’s Dad didn’t have an emerald mine*, so claims of ‘self-made’ are quite a bit more honest there.
YMMV, but I found it quite hilarious when last month, Errol Musk commented on Elon’s Dogecoin bet offer: “When I read that, I wondered, ‘Can I enter, because I can prove it existed.’