Apple has reportedly scrapped its plans to build an electric vehicle which has been in development for nearly a decade, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Although never officially announced, the supposed Apple car which was part of “Project Titan” had close to 2,000 workers on hand, Bloomberg reported.
The site detailed how the decision was made by Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams and Vice President of Technology at Apple, Kevin Lynch.
The two executives reportedly told the team working on the project to start winding things down with many employees on the car team otherwise called the special projects group, being transferred to the artificial intelligence (AI) division run by John Giannandrea, senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy.
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The project had undergone multiple management changes over the years
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Apple has been ramping up its AI usage over the past year with SIRI, the digital assistant which comes with iPhones becoming more and more advanced.
In a recent statement, Apple said: “We believe the measure of any great innovation is the positive impact it has on people’s lives.
“It’s why we work every day to make our technology an even greater force for good.
“Today, our teams around the world work to infuse Appleʼs deeply held values into everything we make. That work can take many forms.”
Bloomberg stated that the decision to call off the project was a shock for the company, which could have made unprecedented progress in the AI and electric car front, following behind Tesla.
The project had undergone multiple management changes over the years with Lynch and Williams taking over from Doug Field who was appointed VP of the special projects group in 2018.
Field left the team to join Ford Motor as chief electric vehicle, digital, and design officer in 2021 having worked at Tesla and Apple previously.
While a price point was never confirmed, various outlets estimated the cost to be around $100,000 or £79,000.
The project was scrapped for many reasons, with executives raising concerns about the vehicle being profitable for Apple on the same scale as the iconic iPhone and MacBook products.
The company’s board was also supposedly concerned about saving costs, with Project Titan costing millions of dollars a year without a launch date in mind.
Electric vehicles are becoming more and more popular in recent years with more car brands making conscious efforts to create new models.
The Apple car would have competed in the same field as the Google self-driving car brand Waymo.
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While a price point was never confirmed, various outlets estimated the cost to be around £79,000
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The car launched in 2009 when Google set out on a challenge to drive autonomously over ten uninterrupted 100-mile routes in its Toyota Prius vehicles.