Apple’s electric car project, codenamed Project Titan, is now dead as the tech giant has reportedly scrapped the ‘Project Titan’ in an internal memo on Tuesday morning. According to Bloomberg, Apple COO Jeff Williams and Project Titan VP Kevin Lynch announced the termination of the rumoured $1 billion project to its 2000 staff.
As for what will happen to the affected workers, Williams and Lynch will slowly shift some to Apple’s generative AI projects, the main reason why Apple is scraping Project Titan while others will have 90 days to find a reassignment to other roles inside the company, or they will be laid off
Despite the massive number of employees, a cut-off of over a hundred staff is the expected headcount, as many, known as the Special Projects Group, will be shifting to the artificial intelligence division under executive John Giannandrea as Apple will focus on generative AI projects, an increasing priority for the company.
Project Titan Is Making Way For Generative AI
As mentioned above, many staffers who worked on Project Titan will reportedly head to teams building generative AI products as Apple is intensifying their development of an AI-powered coding assistant similar to Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot. In addition, the tech giant has reportedly considered bringing AI features to the built-in search bar in iOS and MacOS, Keynote, an alternative to PowerPoint, as the tech companies’ investment into AI continues.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has not spared words regarding the importance of AI as he expressed optimism for the future of AI, calling it life-changing with limitless possibilities during an interview with singer Dua Lipa on the At Your Service podcast in November last year. Cook stated: “It can be life-changing in a good way because it can do things like in the future, I don’t mean necessarily today, it can help diagnose a problem that you’re having from a health point of view.”
Cook continued and stated that AI is present in all Apple products despite the company not labelling it as such in its marketing. “If you’re composing a message or an email on the phone, you’ll see predictive typing, which tries to predict your next word so I can quickly choose the word. That’s AI.”
Besides Cook, Craig Federighi, the company’s software chief, reportedly told Bloomberg that Apple’s engineering teams will have new AI-powered features ready to launch across Apple’s product line-up over the next year. For example, he highlighted that the company is incorporating more advanced AI capabilities into Siri and services like Apple Music and an ambitious overhaul of its Spotlight search feature in development, leveraging large language models to answer more complex queries.
Where Did Project Titan Fail?
Pivoting to a more focused AI view may seem like a good reason on the surface, but there is some evidence signalling that Project Titan failed in several other aspects as well. Firstly, a few weeks before the dismissal of Project Titan, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reported that the car was in a make-or-break moment as executives weighed and reevaluated their investments in electric vehicles amid increased scrutiny on autonomous vehicle projects and what to do with the project and the employees behind them.
Furthermore, as Apple continued to hit roadblock after roadblock, with the latest January report of Apple pushing back the car’s expected launch to 2028, the prospect of the tech giant vaulting into a whole new industry seems sceptical at best.
Moreover, with Apple lowering its envisioned price for the EV to $100,000 from $120,000, concern regarding the vehicle profit margins not matching its existing products rose as the tech giant had already shifted their initiative’s focus from fully autonomous to partly autonomous driving software.
Eventually, setbacks piled on and Project Titan came to an end. Gurman had this to say when asked about Project’s Titan journey. “Apple was still years away from producing a car and contemplated many different designs. Beyond the vehicle’s design, cracking self-driving technology was a massive challenge.”
Related: iOS 17.4 Beta 4: Latest Improved Updates and Early March Release Plans by Apple
The End of Apple’s Most Ambitious Project in History
Undoubtedly, Project Titan is Apple’s most ambitious project to date, as rumours of Apple making an electric car began in 2014 when only wishful pioneers envisioned such a model. To make Project Titan a success, Apple hired several leaders to work on the project, including Tesla’s former Autopilot software director, the former CEO of the embattled EV startup Canoo and even 5000 employees at one point.
However, as years passed without any evidence results and with them reportedly spending $113 billion on total research and development over the past five years, with an average annual growth rate of about 16%, the company’s board of directors is said to have expressed concerns about Project Titan’s budget, causing the delay of the car from its initial 2025 to 2028 and its eventual dismissal after a decade of work.
With Apple abandoning the self-driving electric vehicle dream, what does it mean for Sony and Honda, who plan to launch their Afeela electric cars? Gil Luria, a senior software analyst and managing director at D.A. Davidson & Co., stated: “The fact that Apple decided this isn’t a market that can ever get to that level of profitability is probably a signal to other participants it may not be worth their time.”
For more Apple and electric car news, follow our Facebook social media pages for the latest updates and coverage of the trending topic across the web.
Author Profile
Latest entries
GAMING2024.06.12Top 4 Female Tekken 8 Fighters to Obliterate Your Opponents in Style!- NEWS2024.03.18Elon Musk’s SpaceX Ventures into National Security to Empower Spy Satellite Network for U.S.
- GAMING2024.03.17PS Plus: 7 New Games for March and Beyond
- GAMING2024.03.17Last Epoch Necromancer Builds: All You Need To Know About It
