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Apple Cancels Electric Car Project
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Apple has canceled all plans to release an autonomous, electric vehicle, reports Bloomberg. Apple has been working on an Apple Car for more than a decade and invested millions of dollars into development before deciding it was not a viable project.
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Apple's Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams today told approximately 2,000 employees working on the Apple Car that the project was canceled, and the information reportedly came as a surprise.
Work on the Apple Car is winding down and many of the people that were working on the car will move to Apple's artificial intelligence division to work on generative AI under AI chief John Giannandrea.
There are a number of hardware engineers and car designers that were on the Apple Car team, and there will be layoffs. Some of the employees may be able to shift to other divisions within the company.
Earlier this year, there were rumors that the Apple Car project had been scaled back, with Apple abandoning plans for a full driverless car with autonomous capabilities. Apple shifted focus to an electric vehicle with fewer self-driving features, and the vehicle would have been on par with Tesla's technology. Apple was aiming to release the car sometime around 2026, but now those plans have been shelved completely.
News of the Apple Car first surfaced in 2014, and since then, the project has been rife with problems. The focus of the work has changed and evolved multiple times, and Apple has had several leadership changes due to internal strife. Apple Watch chief Kevin Lynch took over the project in 2021, and he worked to scale down the project while still putting out a viable car.
According to Bloomberg, senior Apple executives made the decision to wind down the Apple Car project in recent weeks.
Article Link: Apple Cancels Electric Car Project
I could never see an Apple car even in my wildest dreams.
Apple has canceled all plans to release an autonomous, electric vehicle, reports Bloomberg. Apple has been working on an Apple Car for more than a decade and invested millions of dollars into development before deciding it was not a viable project.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Apple's Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams today told approximately 2,000 employees working on the Apple Car that the project was canceled, and the information reportedly came as a surprise.
Work on the Apple Car is winding down and many of the people that were working on the car will move to Apple's artificial intelligence division to work on generative AI under AI chief John Giannandrea.
There are a number of hardware engineers and car designers that were on the Apple Car team, and there will be layoffs. Some of the employees may be able to shift to other divisions within the company.
Earlier this year, there were rumors that the Apple Car project had been scaled back, with Apple abandoning plans for a full driverless car with autonomous capabilities. Apple shifted focus to an electric vehicle with fewer self-driving features, and the vehicle would have been on par with Tesla's technology. Apple was aiming to release the car sometime around 2026, but now those plans have been shelved completely.
News of the Apple Car first surfaced in 2014, and since then, the project has been rife with problems. The focus of the work has changed and evolved multiple times, and Apple has had several leadership changes due to internal strife. Apple Watch chief Kevin Lynch took over the project in 2021, and he worked to scale down the project while still putting out a viable car.
According to Bloomberg, senior Apple executives made the decision to wind down the Apple Car project in recent weeks.
Article Link: Apple Cancels Electric Car Project
Great decision. Shame they spent billions, but that’s what makes Apple great!
Ouch! Mine is manual, had few issues. Maybe I’ve had work done on it, can’t remember.
It’s overkill for my usage these days to be honest, my commute is only 8 miles each way, no motorway. Versus 80 a day on the motorway a few years ago. I absolutely will get a small noddy car next time round, haha.
I'm not deflecting anything. Just stating the blatantly obvious, that you seem to not be comprehending.
A point nobody made whilst not responding to the question I asked you.
Except the Americans here complaining about major retail stores across the US not accepting contactless payments of course. ‘Everybody’, but not everybody lol.
You are deflecting because firstly you claimed the below; ‘Nobody wants these electric, junk cars anyway’
Now you’re being pedantic with people who have pointed out it’s the fastest growing car market by suggesting ‘of course you’ll see more now than you used to’…. So people DO want them, you’ve contradicted yourself lol.
It HAS TO BE the fastest growing market because it's the only one that didn't exist a few years ago. That's common sense.
So how is it growing to the scale it is then if ‘nobody wants electric junk cars’? In my country in 2013 there were 2.5k EV’s registered. In 2024 there are over a million. Car companies would not be investing billions and phasing out the manufacture of ICE vehicles if the demand and incentives were not there.
There are companies already backing away from electric. Ford completely killed their F150. It's scaling the way it is because the government is offering thousands to switch. And then places like California (Yuck) are pretty much trying to force them on people. Toyota is another one that doesn't want to deal with the electric BS.
That’s America though. In Europe which is twice the size of the US per population and Asia, the EV market is growing. The Ford F150 is one of the most popular vehicles in North America but not the rest of the World. The US has always been a unique market for cars, why do you think American cars have historically sold very poorly overseas? They’ve always been huge, inefficient and under the standard in crash tests. Tesla is the first American manufacturer to break film into the global market and offer some of the safest cars in the market and one of the biggest sellers. They are also EV’s.
So what you are saying is it's just the opposite of why European cars fail in the US, tiny, under powered, tin cans. 😄 Every European I know that has moved to the states loves their "huge, inefficient" vehicles.
Amazon went all-in last year with EV van's (Rivian(?)) that lasted for about a month and a half. If Amazon can't make it happen in an optimized controlled environment, how in the world do we expect to replace the 1+ billion vehicles on the road now in less than 10 years? Ain't going to happen.
So what you are saying is it's just the opposite of why European cars fail in the US, tiny, under powered, tin cans.Every European I know that has moved to the states loves their "huge, inefficient" vehicles.
Amazon went all-in last year with EV van's (Rivian(?)) that lasted for about a month and a half. If Amazon can't make it happen in an optimized controlled environment, how in the world do we expect to replace the 1+ billion vehicles on the road now in less than 10 years? Ain't going to happen.
Every European I know that has moved to the states loves their "huge, inefficient" vehicles.Most probably yes. Our cars tend to be powerful around bends rather than a V8 boat that does 15 miles per gallon and goes fast eventually in a straight line. Last I heard our BMW’s, Mercedes and Audi’s were quite popular in the States, albeit you get less versions of them. What is underpowered about those btw? My Audi does 0-60mph in 4 seconds.
I wouldn’t recommend EV’s in America, it’s too vast and you get fuel cheap anyway. You’re scared of change too so it’s probably a couple of decades too early for your market. Wait until we’ve been using them for 20 years and then roll them out, bit by bit. A bit like chip and pin and contactless payments in banking. We’ll test them for you.
What are you talking about. those Rivian Amazon vans are all over the place.
I think a load of stuff was made up just for something to respond with.
You have apparently misunderstood what you heard. The BMW, Mercedes, and Audi SUV’s are quite popular over here. The cars not so much. This includes VW and Porsche. As for “scared to change” 🤣😂🤣😂🤣 If it weren’t for the SUV’s, those brands would all be but extinct here. Does “scared to change” include cars? Because Ford and Chevy don’t even bother to make them anymore.
They were everywhere, for about a month or two, until they disappeared. Seriously, why would I bother making something like that up? 😆
You have apparently misunderstood what you heard. The BMW, Mercedes, and Audi SUV’s are quite popular over here. The cars not so much. This includes VW and Porsche. As for “scared to change”If it weren’t for the SUV’s, those brands would all be but extinct here. Does “scared to change” include cars? Because Ford and Chevy don’t even bother to make them anymore.
They were everywhere, for about a month or two, until they disappeared. Seriously, why would I bother making something like that up?
I’m not really bothered what cars are popular and unpopular in the US because it’s makes no difference to me whatsoever. The American car market is vastly removed from the European one and both operate separately as trends are very different. The fact you’ve suggested the car market is dying and the SUV market growing is testament to how different our continents are.
EV’s are becoming more and more popular in Europe and if they are becoming less popular over there, well that’s great for you guys. Other American posters seem to be suggesting the market is growing but in all honesty it’s irrelevant to me.
They may be deploying to some regions and not others. Yesterday I saw about half a dozen of the Rivian Amazon vans on my commute.
We had them. They were all over the place, then disappeared practically overnight. I honestly thought "OK, cool, they actually figured this out" and honestly I was impressed. Then BAM! Gone.
There was no car, no price, nothing official from Apple. I don't know why people keep going on as if this was a real thing.