It is public knowledge that Apple wants to develop its own autonomous electric vehicle. The project has existed at the company for a decade and was the target of an investment in the order of millions of dollars.
But, according to the Bloomberg news agency and the MacRumors website, Tim Cook's company canceled the project due to the unfeasibility of its plans.
Apple Car team will be transferred to Apple's AI area
At the beginning of the year, Apple had already made changes to the design of its electric vehicle Credit@BangyuWang/Unsplash
According to the same sources, the news of cancellation was given by the operations director, Jeff Williams, and came as a surprise to the approximately 2,000 employees involved in the project.
It appears that a large part of the equipment involved in the Apple Car project will now be transferred to Apple's generative Artificial Intelligence area, led by John Giannandrea.
Even with the relocation of workers, the MacRumors website says that, most likely, some hardware engineers and car designers on this team will resign.
Shifting Focus on Apple Car Before Cancellation
According to previously released rumors, at the beginning of this year, the company changed its focus and plans on the Apple Car project. It was revealed that Tim Cook's company, at that time, abandoned plans to produce a fully autonomous, driverless vehicle.
According to these sources, this change in focus would make the Apple Car a model very similar to Tesla's offering, as autonomous driving capabilities would suffer a drastic reduction.
Remember that the project has existed since 2014 and has always been known for the various challenges and obstacles it faced throughout its existence, which also included several internal conflicts and changes in leadership within this team.
Now it has come to an end, due to the impossibility of realizing Apple's ambitious plans. According to the Bloomberg agency, this was a decision made by the company's senior executives that took place in recent weeks.