Apple abandons electric car plan
Apple has abandoned its ambitions to produce electric cars, ending a decade-long project, US media reported on Tuesday.
The iPhone maker has dedicated nearly 2,000 employees to a top-secret car development program, but competition in the electric vehicle (EV) space is heating up, Bloomberg reported.
According to media reports, the goal of Project Titan, which began around 2014, was to develop fully self-driving cars.
The decision to close the car project was announced internally on Tuesday, Bloomberg and the New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources.
Apple has reportedly invested billions of dollars into the project.
The tech giant did not respond to AFP's request for comment.
Despite a steady stream of media leaks over the years, Apple has never made its EV plans public.
In 2022, the specialized website The Information published a report detailing the problems faced by the project, including the resignation of several executives due to lack of support from the leadership.
Several U.S. automakers have put the brakes on EV development in recent months as demand slows. Self-driving car makers Cruise and Waymo (owned by Google's parent company Alphabet) have also struggled to expand their products outside of San Francisco.
Elon Musk's Tesla, one of the leaders in the EV industry, has also warned of slowing growth in 2024.
In a post on X, Musk responded to the news that Apple had canceled its car project with a salute and cigarette emoji.
Apple plans to move many employees from its shuttered automotive division to its generative artificial intelligence (AI) project, Bloomberg reported.
“Meanwhile, approximately 2,000 employees are participating in this effort, and development of the Apple Car is still in the mid-term,” Wedbush's Dan Ives said in an analyst statement. “This is also a modest disappointment, as there were some opinions,” analysts said in a statement.
But on the other hand, he said, “The focus within Apple has increased, we are executing a broad AI strategy within the Apple ecosystem, and the majority of these engineers and developers will be focused on AI going forward. It seems so.''
Generative AI, popularized by the success of ChatGPT by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, allows you to generate text, images, audio, and other output simply by sending a request in everyday language.
Around the world, leading technology companies such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon are rapidly developing and deploying AI products.
But so far, Apple has said little on the subject beyond its use of AI in photo editing.
Source: guardian.ng