Bloomberg says that Apple has ended the long-rumored “Project Titan” work on making an electric car. It is said that the news was shared within the company on Tuesday and that many of the 2,000 people who worked on the car will now focus on creative AI projects instead.
Bloomberg says that Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer, and Kevin Lynch, a vice president in charge of the project, told employees that it was ending. It is also said by the news source that workers will be let go, but it is not clear how many people.
For years, rumors have spread that Apple is working on an electric car. More recently, it was said that Apple was still working on the project. Wired reported earlier this month that Apple had driven more than 45,000 miles in 2023 using the self-driving technology it has built. In January, Bloomberg said that Apple pushed back the launch date of the car to 2028. Apple was asked to respond by The Verge, but they didn’t hear back right away.
In 2015, rumors began to spread about Apple’s secret car project, which was called Project Titan. Apple hired several important people to work on the project, such as the former CEO of the troubled EV startup Canoo and Tesla’s former director of software for Autopilot. However, the project seems to have run into several problems over the years, such as when Doug Field, who was in charge of the Apple Car project, quit in 2021. A story from The Information in 2022 said that Apple had had a hard time with internal doubt, a lot of staff turnover, and plans that kept changing.
Apple to Release Generative AI Features and Update Spotlight, Xcode with AI
At the same time, other stories said the car, which was said to still be under $100,000, wouldn’t have the advanced self-driving features that the company had hoped for. Apple is said to be spending millions of dollars every day teaching its own AI model, called Ajax. It might make sense for the company to put more resources into AI. CEO Tim Cook recently confirmed that the company will release generative AI features “later this year.” There are also reports that the company is testing AI updates for Spotlight and Xcode.
Apple may have given up on the idea of an electric car that can drive itself, but Sony and Honda are still working to make their Afeela electric cars with self-driving features available for pre-order in North America next year. The cars will be available to the public in 2026.
