Penka Hristovska
Published on: February 29, 2024
Apple is ending its top-secret project to develop an autonomous electric vehicle, an effort that’s estimated to have cost the company billions of dollars.
News of the company’s decision to pull the curtain on the project came as soon as Tuesday, when Apple executives internally told employees working on it that they’ll be diverted to other divisions that are working on artificial intelligence.
However, the company isn’t expected to keep all 2,000 employees that were part of its so-called Project Titan — those who won’t be kept to work on AI-related matters are expected to be laid off, though the numbers on this are still unclear.
“If it is true, Apple will put more focus on GenAI and that should give investors more optimism about the company’s efforts and ability to compete at a platform level on AI,” said CEO of consulting firm Creative Strategies Ben Bajarin.
Apple has denied commenting on the matter, but it’s thought that the decision to end the project was influenced by the anticipated low-profit margins from the car in the current market.
Apple started Project Titan 10 years ago amid Silicon Valley’s growing fascination with self-driving technology. Reports in 2020 suggested Apple is considering releasing the car somewhere between 2024 and 2025.
During a 2021 podcast interview with tech journalist Kara Swisher, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook mentioned he would remain “coy” regarding the electric vehicle (EV) projects underway at Apple.
“If you sort of step back, the car, in a lot of ways, is a robot. An autonomous car is a robot. And so there’s lots of things you can do with autonomy. And we’ll see what Apple does … We explore a multitude of avenues internally. A significant number never emerge publicly. I’m not suggesting that this particular one won’t,” Cook said at the time.
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- Source: https://www.safetydetectives.com/news/apple-is-cancelling-its-electric-car-project/
