The Apple Car (and "Project Titan") Is as Dead as the iPod
After a decade of top secret development, Apple scraps its EV in favor of AI.
For roughly a decade the entire automotive industry has been left guessing and speculating about the so called "Apple Car. " On the surface it didn't seem to make much sense that a tech company most well known for its smartphones and sleek computers would venture into the automotive business. Regardless, Apple saw the opportunity to expand its ecosystem to electric vehicles and invested significant resources to make it happen. Now, it looks like Apple is throwing in the towel.
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According to a report from Bloomberg (via The Verge), Apple's COO Jeff Williams and VP Kevin Lynch sent out a message to 2,000 employees that were part of the "Special Projects Group" AKA the Apple Car team that they would be "shifted" to the company's AI department. This effectively means the end of the Apple Car or "Project Titan" as it was called internally. Any hardware engineers or vehicle designers might be shifted to other Apple departments as well, but it is likely a wave of layoffs are coming.
The market seems to be happy about the EV's death, asBloombergsays that Apple shares rose 1 percent after their report was published. Why are investors glad that Apple is killing off its EV? It may have something to do with the fact that despite the project starting back in 2014, Apple hasn't made much headway. There has been no official acknowledgement from the company about its work on the EV and the project has seen several key figures come and go. Despite those hiccups, Apple kept pushing.
We certainly see the appeal as to why Apple would want to continue down the EV road. Apple sells millions of iPhones, iPads and MacBooks every year and its customers tend to be exceptionally loyal. Generally speaking, Apple customers want to stay within the company's software ecosystem that allows all of its devices to work together seamlessly. If Apple were to pull off a capable EV—its largest consumer electronic yet, but an electronic nevertheless—it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that many of its iPhone customers would line up for the chance to own an Apple Car, even if that car might have had a starting price over $100,000.
The reality is that starting up an automaker from scratch is really freaking hard. Doubly so when the backer is a company whose core competencies are in a completely different realm. This is why you don't see McDonald's making smartphones or Disney making tires. Sometimes it's best to stick with what you're good at, and when publicly traded companies veer away from their specialties, investors get nervous.
Reportedly, Apple had high expectations for its first outing as an automaker. The tech company was aiming for SAE Level 4 autonomy and according to the report there were even early talks of the EV not having a steering wheel or pedals at all, but that idea was scrapped. Recent struggles saw Apple cutting back on its original goals for the car including delaying the release until 2028 and knocking down autonomous features to Level 2—the same as Tesla's Autopilot and a number of other common driver assists from various automakers that merely keep a car in its lane and modulate its acceleration and braking on freeways.
It would appear that after some self-reflection Apple decided it was best to cut its losses, ditch the EV project, and instead focus its resources on the rapidly growing business of AI. While we aren't surprised that things turned out this way, we will miss speculating about the mystical and legendary Apple Car. We even made our own model of it based on what we thought it might look like. How fun!
Luckily for us, Apple wasn't the only technology company working on a car. We still have Sony's Afeela EV to watch for and speculate about—and that car is way farther along in the public eye.
Andrew Beckford’s passion for cars started as a middle schooler when his friend Richie explained how an internal combustion engine works. He was bitten by the bug and the rest, as they say, is history. He dug deep into the tuner scene and eventually wrote for Turbo Magazine, Import Tuner, Super Street. He covered car shows, feature builds, and reviewed racing games for those magazines in addition to covering motorsports including Formula Drift, Indy Car, and F1 for his personal blog. Eventually Beckford joined MotorTrend to cover the daily automotive news beat. Besides being a gearhead, Beckford has been a gamer since the ’80s and is a huge fan of the arcade racing games of the ’90s like Daytona USA, SEGA Rally, and Ridge Racer. Beckford’s a movie buff as well, especially comic book films from DC and Marvel. When car culture crosses over with gaming and entertainment, rest assured Beckford is aware of it. In addition to serving as a consultant on a “triple A” racing titles, he’s reviewed major racing games such as Forza Motorsport, Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, F1, and more. He’s also interviewed blockbuster directors including Steven Caple Jr. (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) and Neill Blomkamp (Gran Turismo). His biggest profile to date was with Robert Downey Jr. on his love affair with cars and his show Downey’s Dream Cars on MAX. Beckford’s profile of Downey Jr. was the first print cover story written by an African American in MotorTrend’s history. Along with KJ Jones, Andrew Beckford also heads up MotorTrend’s celebration of Black History Month by spotlighting diverse voices in the automotive industry and motorsports. Beckford’s first car was a 1982 Nissan Stanza affectionately named “Stanley” by his late mother.
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