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The parent company behind the iPhone and MacBook, Apple will now wind down its team working on electric cars, called Special Projects Group, a decade after kicking off the project, per reports on Tuesday. According to an announcement by the company executives in a short meeting, the tech giant will be scuttling its secretive and long-running effort to build an autonomous electric car.
Apple’s chief operating officer Jeff Williams and the vice president in charge of Titan (the electric car project), Kevin Lynch, reportedly announced the news to the team Tuesday in a short meeting that lasted about 12 minutes and did not take questions.
The company is likely cutting hundreds of employees from the team and all work on the project has stopped, per various sources. This signals an end to Apple’s effort to build a car to rival Tesla. Reports of Apple’s ambition to build a car came out around 2014, after the company recruited automotive engineers and other talent from auto companies. The car project was part of an internal effort to look for technologies the company could develop with huge potential markets. In 2020, a Reuters report said Apple was considering releasing a vehicle as soon as 2024 or 2025.
Following the project’s cancellation, many members of the Apple car team, including hardware engineers and vehicle designers, face uncertain futures. While some may have the opportunity to transition to other divisions within Apple, the exact number of layoffs remains unclear. However, reports say employees in the car division may move to a generative artificial intelligence team. Apple electric car project The company and its CEO Tim Cook never acknowledged the car project publicly, instead referring to it as work on “autonomous systems.” In 2016, Cook was asked by a shareholder about the project, and teased that “it’s going to be Christmas Eve for a long time.”
Although there was little public information about Apple’s plans, the company reportedly operated a program with autonomous Apple-owned cars equipped with sensors and safety drivers driving around the San Francisco Bay Area.
The project group however had several reorganizations over the years, including layoffs in 2019, when employees were moved to different parts of the company. The design of the concept car also changed, from a radical, steering-wheel-free autonomous vehicle that would have been a departure from traditional automotive design to a more conventional car with advanced driver-assistance features.
Recall that interest rates to tame inflation have soured consumer sentiment and led to a slowdown in demand for usually pricier electric vehicles, prompting the industry to cut jobs and reduce production. Several major automakers, including EV market leader Tesla have decided to pull back on investments, with some shifting plans to focus on hybrids instead of fully battery-powered cars.
Apple pivots into AI?
According to Bloomberg, several employees working on the electric car project will be shifted to the firm’s artificial intelligence (AI) division. According to Ben Bajarin, Chief Executive of consulting firm Creative Strategies who spoke to Reuters: “If it is true, Apple will put more focus on GenAI and that should give investors more optimism about the company’s efforts and ability to compete at a platform level on AI.”
Note that Apple has so far held back from any big moves in AI, in contrast to other tech giants like Alphabet (Google) and Microsoft that have first-mover advantage in incorporating the breakthrough technology. But this speculation of a strategic move towards generative artificial intelligence (AI), could be described as a testament to Apple’s long-term vision.
Analysts have suggested that AI presents more promising revenue streams compared to the uncertainties in the EV market. With its renewed focus on AI, Apple aims to capitalise on emerging technologies while continuing to invest heavily in research and development.
