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Apple has put an end to its decade long push to build its own electric vehicle, an effort once seen as having the potential to transform the auto industry.
That transformation, which has been under way for years without Apple, continuously increased the level of difficulty Apple faced as it spent billions trying to catch or exceed the capabilities made available during a revolution led by
The secret group inside the iPhone giant—known internally as Project Titan—has been informed that Apple would be shutting down its efforts in building a car while the company ramps up investments in the area of generative artificial intelligence, a person familiar with the situation said.
Some of the employees inside the group will be shifting to Apple’s AI group, while other employees working on car hardware will likely face layoffs. Bloomberg News earlier reported the plans.
Apple has spent billions of dollars on research and development on the car project. The car group inside Apple was the subject of several rounds of restructuring and shifting strategies over the years as Apple struggled to figure out a path forward, people who worked on the project said. Some executives pitched deep partnerships with automakers or even outright buying an automaker, but none of that materialized, the people said.
Since the mid-2010s, the specter of Apple introducing a car had rattled auto executives. Cars were becoming computers on wheels, with updateable features and large touch screens—morphing into a sort of device that seemed to play right into Apple’s strengths.
Even outside of its car project, Apple’s products have had a far-reaching impact on the car business. Automakers for years had struggled to refine multimedia systems and other in-car technology. As Apple’s iPhone and iPad surged in popularity, car brands tried to get their touch screens to have the look and functionality of an iPhone.
Eventually, automakers invited Apple inside with their CarPlay feature, an app that allows users to project their phone on the car’s center display. CarPlay now comes installed on more than 90% of model-year 2023 vehicles sold in the U.S., according to research firm Wards Intelligence.
As Apple’s car project progressed, the company’s goals around autonomous driving capabilities wavered. When the effort kicked off around 2014, the company imagined a fully autonomous vehicle. Over time, Apple scaled back those ambitions to semiautonomous, where the vehicle automates only some parts of the driving.
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