Apple has reportedly ditched the development of its electric car, known as “Project Titan.”
Instead of continuing work on its EV, Apple is shifting at least some of the employees to work on generative artificial intelligence. The announcement was made with an internal email to roughly 2,000 employees, sources told Bloomberg.
The abandonment of the EV project marks a substantial shift in Apple’s most recent developments surrounding the car, which just occurred in January.
Last month, Apple reportedly planned to equip the vehicle with “limited autonomous driving” and backtracked several things to make the project more realistic.
Apple may have thought the original plans for the vehicle, which were geared toward a fully self-driving platform, were too ambitious.
It had acquired some high-profile talent, like Senior Director of Engineering Dr. Michael Schwekutsch, who also spent time at Tesla, to the project.
However, Schwekutsch left Apple for Archer Aviation.
Backtracking from what was once set to be the most advanced vehicle in the automotive industry’s rich history to a complete cancelation of the project in roughly a month is a major shift.
However, we did report last month when we covered the backtracking of features that, if Apple could not see a path forward with a more conservative EV effort, it would likely abandon the project altogether.
The decision to abandon the development of Apple’s EV was reportedly shared by Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams and Kevin Lynch, who was a Vice President of Project Titan’s development.
It remains unclear if Apple will ever launch efforts to develop an EV again. However, it has proven to be a challenging task for many companies, and many have failed.
However, Apple, with its rich history of innovation and technological breakthroughs, was not necessarily who we expected to tap out.
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