Apple has been rumored to be working on its own car for years, but the company has never officially confirmed its interest in competing with Tesla, Ford or Mercedes-Benz. And now there will be nothing to confirm: as Bloomberg reports, citing its sources who wished to remain anonymous, Apple has canceled an automobile project that had been in the works for about ten years.
The decision to discontinue work on the first electric car was supported by Jeff Williams, chief operating officer, and Kevin Lynch, vice president in charge of the car project.. They reportedly announced this today to approximately 2,000 employees working on the promising car.. Bloomberg reports that many of the workers will be transferred to the AI division, led by Chief Executive John Giannandrea, to focus on generative artificial intelligence projects, which are becoming increasingly important to the company.
There are several hundred engineers and designers in the Apple team that created the car; it is unknown what will happen to them. Some will be able to apply for jobs in other teams of the company, but there will also be layoffs.
Apple itself did not comment on this data.. According to Bloomberg, by canceling the project, the company put an end to the many billions of dollars that were invested in it. Apple started working on its first car around 2014. The company has set an ambitious goal to release a spacious, fully autonomous electric car with voice control.. But almost from the very beginning, serious difficulties arose, and Apple itself changed the leadership and strategy of the team several times.
Jeff Williams and Kevin Lynch took over the project after the departure of Doug Field, who now runs Ford Motor.. The decision to scrap the project was finally made by senior Apple executives in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the situation.. Probably due to the fact that the initially set goals turned out to be unattainable. So, as part of recent discussions, there was talk about releasing the car only in 2028 and simplifying the autopilot (the second level of autonomy instead of the fourth). There was also uncertainty about the $100,000 price tag: executives were concerned that the machine wouldn't be able to generate the kind of profit margin that Apple typically makes on its products. The company's board of directors was also concerned that it continued to spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on a project that might never see the light of day.