Apple has reportedly shut down its long-developing plans to build and release an electric car. Bloomberg reports, via unnamed sources, that the company informed the team members of those plans today.
The car team allegedly had close to 2,000 team members, according to the story. They were informed of the cancelation by Apple"s Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Williams, and Apple"s VP in charge of the project, Kevin Lynch. The report added that some of the affected team members will be moved over to the company"s generative AI division. Some other team members might be laid off completely, but there"s no word on how many jobs will be cut.
While Apple has never officially disclosed its plans to make a car, rumors about such a project have been popping up for the better part of a decade. In February 2015, unconfirmed reports came in that Apple had started developing the car under the code name Titan. Apple was also rumored to be testing a self-driving vehicle.
Over the years, the project reportedly had its ups and downs. In 2016, rumors hit the internet that Apple had scaled back the project, and in 2021, a number of the top executives running the division reportedly departed Apple.
The company"s car project was also part of a business espionage scheme. Earlier in 2024, former Apple engineer Xiaolang Zhan was sentenced to 120 days in prison in California. He was convicted of stealing information about Apple"s car project in order to send it to a Chinese self-driving car company.
Before today, the most recent report about Apple"s car project came just a month ago. In January, Bloomberg reported that Apple had decided not to make a truly driverless vehicle in favor of a less ambitious electric car with a target launch date of 2028. Just a month later, it would seem that Apple has finally decided to put this car project to rest in favor of trying to catch up to Microsoft, Google, Meta, and other companies in developing generative AI services.