Have you been waiting patiently for the Apple Car? Well, the not-so-secret project has been canned, according to “people with knowledge of the matter.”
According to Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, the project was canceled on Tuesday, surprising the 2,000 employees working on the electric vehicle. Many of those employees will be moved to Apple’s AI division as we await the company’s first move in the AI race.
Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams and an Apple vice president, Kevin Lynch, informed the employees of the project’s cancelation.
Gurman states, “The two executives told staffers that the project will begin winding down and that many employees on the Car team — known as the Special Projects Group, or SPG — will be shifted to the artificial intelligence division under executive John Giannandrea. Those employees will focus on generative AI projects, an increasingly key priority for the company.”
Bloomberg’s report also states that “there will be layoffs, but it’s unclear how many,” as the hundreds of hardware engineers and vehicle designers working on the Apple Car look for new roles.
Project Titan cancelled
Project Titan (the internal name for Apple Car) has been in the works since around 2014, yet the car’s release, even by 2024, was still years away.
The cancellation of the Apple Car project comes at a time when shareholder pressure on Apple’s AI involvement seems to be ramping up. Earlier on Tuesday, there were reports that two of Apple’s biggest shareholders were pushing for Apple to announce its AI plans publicly after a proposal from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).
Whether or not the Apple Car news is linked to these shareholder pressures is unknown. However, considering the shifting of focus, it looks like Apple is all in on AI. With iOS 18 expected to be revealed at WWDC in June, we don’t have long to wait to see what Apple is working on. But will it be as cool as an automated car? Who knows.