Why are we assuming that "something went wrong?" Isn't it just as possible that Apple went through the effort and expense and decided that this was not a market they felt was going to provide the return on investment that shareholders want? As a former Apple employee I was always skeptical that the EV market was something that Apple could (or should) try to innovate in.
After spending a decade developing an autonomous car, Apple this week decided it was time to pull an AirPower and shut down the project. The Apple Car is no more, and Apple is no longer planning to release an Apple-branded electric vehicle.
The hundreds of engineers and car experts who were working on the vehicle will be laid off or distributed to other teams within Apple, including the AI team. The Apple Car is one of the longest running rumors that we've been reporting on without a product materializing, so we thought we'd take a look back at some of the key moments in the Apple Car's history to provide some insight into what went wrong.
2015 - Early Development
In early 2015, a van leased to Apple surfaced on the streets of Concord, California with LiDAR equipment on its roof. Apple had been using vans like this for mapping purposes, but the hardware looked similar to hardware being used by companies testing self-driving software. This one vehicle sighting ended up sparking a slew of rumors.
That same month, an unnamed Apple employee told Business Insider that Apple would "give Tesla a run for its money," and Financial Times claimed that Apple was recruiting automotive technology and vehicle design experts to work in a "top-secret research lab." The Wall Street Journal then broke a story with in-depth details on the hundreds of employees working on an Apple-branded minivan-like electric vehicle.
There were a number of other key headlines and details shared in 2015.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly approved the self-driving car project in 2014.
- At the time, the project was led by Steve Zadesky, Apple VP of Product Design and a former Ford engineer. It was overseen by Dan Riccio, Apple's SVP of hardware engineering.
- In 2015, Bloomberg said that Apple was hoping to produce the car by 2020. Later, the WSJ said it could be ready as soon as 2019.
- Apple was said to be meeting with Magna Steyr, BMW, and automotive companies as it sought a partner.
- The Guardian published a report that Apple wasn't just working on an electric vehicle, it was working on an autonomous vehicle. The report also said that Apple had prototypes ready for testing, which wasn't accurate.
- Former General Motors CEO Dan Akerson said that Apple was underestimating the difficulty of operating in the car business. "They have no idea what they're getting into," he said.
- Apple hired a ton of vehicle experts from automotive companies and from companies with expertise in autonomous vehicles.
- Apple's "secret" car headquarters were located in Sunnyvale, California, close to the Infinite Loop campus.
2016 and 2017 - First Signs of Strife Lead to Major Upheaval
The first hints of trouble with the Apple Car project surfaced in January 2016, with Apple Car lead Steve Zadesky departing the company. Around this time, Apple registered several domain names, including apple.car and apple.auto.
Former Apple SVP of technologies Bob Mansfield came out of retirement to head up the project, and under his direction, rumors suggested that Apple was focusing on an autonomous driving system with the aim of partnering with a car manufacturer in the future. Apple kept aggressively hiring, and at this time, split development into the hardware for the car and the software that would run on it.
With the transition to Mansfield's leadership, hundreds of employees were fired or reassigned, and in late 2016, there was a major upheaval. Apple "abandoned" plans to build its own vehicle and gave Mansfield's team a 2017 deadline to prove the feasibility of a self-driving system.
In early 2017, white Lexus RX450h SUVs outfitted with LiDAR equipment and piloted by Apple employees were spotted in the Bay Area, and Apple has used these vehicles to test its autonomous driving systems up until now. Apple was also rumored to be testing its self-driving technology at a facility in Arizona.
Apple at this time was also working on building an autonomous shuttle in partnership with Volkswagen to ferry employees to the Infinite Loop campus, but that was nixed.
Tim Cook made the unusual decision to confirm that Apple was working on autonomous driving. "We're focusing on autonomous systems," Cook said. "It's a core technology that we view as very important." He went on to say that it was the "mother of all AI projects," describing it as "o... Click here to read rest of article
Article Link: Apple Car History - Where Did Development Go Wrong?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Car History - Where Did Development Go Wrong?
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Where Did Development Go Wrong?
No Steve Jobs left to right the ship.Gambling on electric when the future is hydrogen/smart fuel.
computer company building cars? I have no idea where development went wrong
It's been obvious for quite some time now that the high end EV market is not nearly as big as people thought it was. Pretty much all manufacturers are having a hard time selling these very expensive vehicles and Apple smartly recognize that they were not going to make inroads in the market that they thought. Anybody who thinks that an Apple car was going to be anything less than extremely expensive is fooling themselves.
Canceling the EV project was a smart move, saving Apple loads of money from future lawsuits and recalls.
The Apple Car project is older than the Vision Pro project. Steve talked about improving autos long before he died. He just didn't live to see it through to reality.
Apple has hundreds of Mechanical Engineers with automobile credentials and have for decades. People are truly dense to think they have no knowledge. The diverse groups of Ph.Ds, from ME, EE, ChemE, Physics, etc., that's at Apple would blow you away. Many worked at CERN and helped work on the Supercolliders.
The first concept image in the article looks like a Magic Mouse with wheels. I wonder if the charging port is underneath…
Just my own personal experience... many other people I know have had two electric cars in that time... and this does seem to be at odds with the idea you can have a car and have it last 10 + years
No matter if it is a single data point or not... this is not the way to go for a sustainable future.
People are continuing to treat their cars like other consumer goods... they want an updated model, they want the new feature, they want a new version.
And the cars that have been made, are just not being built to last.
The last thing this failing country needs is *more* electrical cars for a country that doesn't have a power grid that can adequately supply power to the current needs under all possible weather conditions.
As much as I would have loved to see an Apple EV, we are definitely years away still.
As much as I would have loved to see an Apple EV, we are definitely years away still.
Building a fully autonomous car with today's infrastructure is like designing an iPhone without cell towers – lots of tech, but nowhere to go.
I am not surprised Apple pulled the plug with the made-up concepts in this article to represent what the Apple Car might look like 🤣
I think Project Titan wound up being a blessing in disguise: Apple sensibly exited the money-pit aspect (the automobile industry) while salvaging the A.I. stuff. There’s a reason they’ve been making so many strides in generative A.I. lately despite not prioritizing it at all until very recently. They were quietly, inadvertently laying the foundation for nearly ten years.
I suspect Apple will cancel there 5G modem project next. So Airpower, Apple Car and 5G modem will be Apple’s recent cancelled projects. Can’t win them all
Too many histrionic comments… my thoughts on what probably happened:
- The main focus of Apple was to build a 100% autonomous car. Overtime, it became clear that was too ambitious (seems like even in the long term).
- The project shifted to a less ambition goal. However, the less ambitious it is, the less sense it makes. They can release a HomePod mini which is very similar to any other smart speaker and is just enhanced by the Apple ecosystem. But this wouldn’t work in the car market, due to the typology and complexity of the product. Most probably they’re able to ship a good EV, but that was not the goal / what they needed.
- This is not any kind of major failure why Tim Cook should resign(?). It’s not a good outcome, sure, and RD budget must be spent wisely; internally, it will create turmoil in some areas. But there will be many different RD projects going on. Probably the car was one of the most prominent, but it was also the most visible due to legislation, difficulty to test without leaks, etc.
- The article (based on the wrong way Gurman tries to frame the situation) basically says that employees will either go to work on AI or will be gone. Actually, Gurman mentions that some employees will move to work on device-related AI among other areas; but obviously, this is good bait to say “they shift from cars to AI”.
I personally don’t care for Evs, but I think I might have considered Apple’s version bc Apple. I guess the closest we’ll get to an Apple car is CarPlay.
My heart goes out to those who lost their jobs.
I was so excited to own an Apple car.
Considering how the current market conditions of the ev market I get it.
Makes me wonder how close they were to canceling the Vision Pro.
Talk about a niche product
I was so excited to own an Apple car.
Considering how the current market conditions of the ev market I get it.
Makes me wonder how close they were to canceling the Vision Pro.
Talk about a niche product
Apple itself can't make ANYTHING and hasn't been able to for decades. Apple is a software company that likes to pretend to be a manufacturing company, except they don't have any factories.
I think the truth is EVs are overhyped. They're good to have for driving around the town for local errands where you can charge in your garage unconcerned with range, not have to pay for gas, and lower maintenance. Outside of that, they're annoying (i own an EV and looking to later switch to an ICE car so i don't have to be stuck charging on long trips). And full self driving might be more than a decade away, don't believe all the Elon hype. The engineers at waymo know this. Apple probably realized it.
btw without Robotaxi, tesla's valuation makes no sense and that's not coming anytime soon. Tesla will be stuck at level 2 for years