Apple cancels its electric car project in favour of AI
Intelligence Car Artificial Division The Shifted Team Employees On Be The To Will
Apple is cancelling a decade-long effort to build an electric car, abandoning one of the most ambitious projects in the history of the company.
Apple made the disclosure internally on Tuesday, surprising the nearly 2,000 employees working on the project, said the source, who asked not to be identified because the announcement wasn’t public. The decision was shared by Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams and Kevin Lynch, a vice president in charge of the effort, according to the source.
The two executives told staffers that the project will begin winding down and that many employees on the car team — known as the Special Projects Group, or SPG — will be shifted to the artificial intelligence division under executive John Giannandrea. Those employees will focus on generative AI projects, an increasingly key priority for the company.
The Apple car team also has several hundred hardware engineers and vehicle designers. It’s possible they will be able to apply for jobs on other Apple teams. There will be lay-offs, but it’s unclear how many.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, declined to comment.
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The move came as a relief to investors, who sent Apple shares climbing on Tuesday. Elon Musk, head of Tesla, also celebrated the move. He shared a post on the X social media site with a saluting emoji and a cigarette.
The decision to ultimately wind down the project is a bombshell for the company, ending a multibillion-dollar effort called Project Titan that would have vaulted Apple into a whole new industry. The tech giant started working on a car around 2014, setting its sights on a fully autonomous electric vehicle with a limousine-like interior and voice-guided navigation.
But the project struggled nearly from the start, with Apple changing the team’s leadership and strategy several times. Lynch and Williams took charge of the undertaking a few years ago — following the departure of Doug Field, now a senior executive at Ford.
Apple was still years away from producing a car and contemplated many different designs. Beyond the look of the vehicle, cracking self-driving technology was a major challenge.
Apple had road-tested its system since 2017 using a Lexus SUV exterior, putting dozens of vehicles on roads in the US. The company also tested more secretive components on a gigantic track in Phoenix that was once owned by Chrysler.
In the end, Apple was facing a cooling market for EVs. Sales growth lost steam in recent months after high prices and a lack of charging infrastructure discouraged mainstream buyers from shifting to all-electric vehicles.
Even Tesla, the pioneer of the EV revolution, has warned its rate of expansion will be “notably lower” this year.