Though Apple may have intended to bring an electric vehicle to market, the iPhone maker has suddenly changed course.
On Tuesday, Apple informed the 2,000 employees working on a self-driving, electric Apple Car that it was ending the project. The secret effort, called Project Titan internally, appears to have spanned 10 years and cost Apple billions of dollars.
Many employees who worked on Titan will move to Apple’s artificial intelligence division to work on generative AI, according to an internal announcement made by Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Williams, and a vice president in charge of the Apple Car, Kevin Lynch. Others could be impacted by layoffs, though the number of people affected isn’t yet clear.
Related: Apple Is Secretive About Product Development — But New Records Expose Its Approach to Autonomous Vehicles
Apple has remained quiet about its autonomous and electric vehicle development for a decade, though it took its EVs for many test drives last year.
From December 2022 to November 2023, Apple’s EV fleet of 67 cars drove 450,000 miles, more than triple the year before. The Washington Post reported that Apple had the biggest increase in autonomous vehicle testing between 2022 and 2023, beating out companies like Waymo, Cruise, and Mercedes Benz.
12 May 2023, USA, Sunnyvale: An Apple test car converted into a self-driving vehicle can be seen in Silicon Valley. Photo by Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images
Related: ‘Next Tesla’ Electric Car Startups Hit Speed Bump: ‘Investors Want To See Demand’
Other automotive companies, such as EV industry leader Tesla, have recently warned investors about cooling demand for EVs, while firms like Ford are shifting their EV strategy.
Startups that have gone all-in on all-electric, such as Rivian and Lucid, are feeling the squeeze of lower-than-expected demand; Rivian lost about $2 billion last year and cut its workforce by 10%.
