Apple Cancels Its Decade-Long Electric Car Project

Apple has canceled its electric car project after a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar effort to rival Tesla, reports Bloomberg. This is a shocking move because it marks the end of Apple’s Project Titan, which was the company’s most ambitious project in history.

According to Bloomberg, Apple’s senior executives decided to wind down the electric car project in recent weeks. The Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Williams, and the Vice President, Kevin Lynch internally disclosed this decision on February 27, 2024.

Nearly 2000 employees were working on the project, and they were left stunned by this announcement. As the company decided to shut down the project, some employees will be moved to Apple’s Generative AI team which is led by John Giannandrea.

However, this offer won’t be given to all the employees who have been working on the Apple Car project. Some employees might be asked to “apply for jobs on other Apple teams,” and unfortunately, there will be some layoffs as well, Bloomberg says. At the moment, it’s not clear how many lay-offs will happen.

Earlier this year, several rumors hinted that Apple has scaled back its car‌ project and abandoned its long-running plans to launch a fully automated, driverless car without any pedals or steering wheel. Then, Apple diverted its focus to an electric vehicle that has fewer self-driving features. The vehicle would have been a direct rival to Tesla’s technology. According to the previous plans, Apple’s electric car would make a debut sometime around 2026. However, those plans have now been scrapped completely.

Elon Musk responded to a post on Twitter with a saluting emoji, his trademark style.

Apple Car news first surfaced a long way back in 2014, speculating that the giant is working on some sort of electric car. Since then, the project flowed a bit and seen multiple problems. Apple redesigned the focus of the work multiple times and made some leadership changes as well. In 2021, Apple Watch chief Kevin Lynch took over the project. Unfortunately, after several internal changes and decade-long efforts, those ambitions have been shelved completely. It’s surprising to know that the Cupertino tech giant invested millions of dollars into Project Titan before deciding it was not a viable project.

Beebom’s Take

We’re not sure why Apple has canceled the Project Titan but it can be speculated that the company’s priorities have shifted since the project was taken up in 2014. Despite pouring billions of dollars and efforts, the project did not come to any fruition. One possible reason could be the failure to develop autonomous driving technology that matches Apple’s standards. This is not the first time when Apple has accepted failure in its projects. Last year, it was reported that Apple had shelved the efforts to develop an in-house custom 5G modem. Apple AirPower is another example of a product that never saw daylight.