After a decade, of spending billions, numerous leadership changes, and countless rumors, the Apple Car project has come to an end. According to a recent report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has formally scrapped the car project, informing nearly 2,000 employees working on it of the decision on Tuesday.
For nearly ten years, there have been rumors about Apple working on an Electric car. However, it seems the company has now chosen to drop the project.
Bloomberg reports that Apple executives informed employees on Tuesday that they are canceling their plans to create an electric car, which was originally planned to be fully autonomous.
As part of the shift, Apple will transfer many employees from the car project to its artificial intelligence division, where they will concentrate on generative AI. CEO Tim Cook mentioned during the company’s recent revenue call that more details about these projects would be revealed later this year.
However, the car team also included numerous hardware engineers and car designers. According to Bloomberg, some of them may have the opportunity to seek positions in other parts of the company, while the remainder are expected to face layoff
The reasons behind Apple’s decision to end the project are unclear. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s top executives made the final decision this month, as the project had reached a critical juncture. Over the years, the company had altered its strategy multiple times in an attempt to salvage the project.
The strategy involved delaying the car’s launch from 2026 to 2028 and reducing the autonomous features of the electric vehicle (EV). However, these adjustments failed to rescue the project, which reportedly remained in its early stages of development.
Wired recently stated that Apple significantly increased the miles it tested on public roads last year compared to 2022, surpassing its total from 2021 by more than 30 times.
The car project cost Apple billions. Initially called Project Titan, it was expected to be a big deal for Cupertino. In 2018, Doug Field, a former Apple engineer who had also worked at Tesla, was brought in to lead it.
However, Field left Apple for Ford in 2021, raising more doubts about the rumored iCar.
Bloomberg says Apple planned to sell its car for about $100,000. However, the company’s board was worried about investing in a project with uncertain success. Apple didn’t respond right away to a request for comment.