After 10 years of rumors, the Apple Car project, also known as Project Titan, is falling through. Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, who has spent a decade commenting on it, announces that the 2,000 employees in charge of the design of Apple's electric vehicle have been informed of this decision.
Since 2015, the rumor of an Apple car has regularly made headlines. Even if the brand has never confirmed anything, its competitors regularly mention this secret, while several well-informed journalists regularly publish some indiscretions on the “Titan project”, the code name of the Apple Car.
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Partnership with Volkswagen, design of a fully autonomous car, development of driving software, change of strategy to design an electric vehicle with a steering wheel… For 10 years, the Titan project has continued to change direction, to the point of becoming A running gag technology news.
After years of rumors and restructuring its mystery team, Apple has finally made the decision to move on. According to Mark Gurman of Bloombergthe 2,000 employees of the Titan project were informed of bad news on Tuesday February 27: the Apple Car will not exist.
The end of Apple's most mysterious project
After years of disillusionment (the supposed release date of the Apple Car was constantly pushed back), the abandonment of the Titan project seemed inevitable. Apple missed the electric transition, so that manufacturers like Tesla have established themselves as leaders in the field. In Asia, several tech brands, such as Sony and Xiaomi, have caught up with Apple's project. Tim Cook's company, despite billions of dollars spent and test vehicles on Californian roads, does not seem ready to present anything.
If Mark Gurman is telling the truth (and there is every reason in the world to believe that he is telling the truth), Project Titan could well be one of the biggest failures in Apple's recent history, given the ambition of the project.
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A company of Apple's scale is used to abandoning projects midstream, but it's rare for them to last 10 years and be this ambitious. 2,000 employees are said to be members of the Titan team today, while previous rumors mentioned 5,000 people, but Apple has reportedly carried out several restructurings in recent years.
What will become of the employees of the Titan team? True to form, Apple should offer them springboards towards other teams. Mark Gurman cites in particular the teams in charge of generative artificial intelligence, Apple's new major project. The brand should unveil its strategy in June 2024. Engineers recruited for their expertise in cars should leave the ship.
The announcement of the death of Project Titan may help to understand why Apple is banking so much on its new CarPlay, to strengthen its presence in vehicles from other brands. Even without a vehicle with an apple-shaped logo, iOS and the brand's services could soon expand their influence on the roads.