Apple is to abandon its decade-long project to build an electric car, and instead focus more on artificial intelligence (AI), according to reports.
The electric vehicle plan, named ‘Project Titan’, has always been secretive, but apparently Apple employees were informed of the decision to pull the plug on the project at an internal meeting on Tuesday. Bloomberg reported that the announcement came as a surprise to employees.
The ending of the project will mean that some people will be made redundant, but others will shift to working on generative AI projects instead.
It is thought that Apple has sunk billions into the plan to develop a semi-autonomous electric vehicle over the years – although the company never formally announced plans to offer a vehicle. This has included recruiting executives from high profile car manufacturers such as Lamborghini and Tesla, as well as buying Drive.ai, an autonomous vehicle company, in 2019.
But despite the investment and work, it was thought that Apple was still some years away from bringing a vehicle to market.
Apple’s plans for its vehicle had shifted over the years. Initially it was thought the company was looking to develop a fully autonomous vehicle that did not have a steering wheel, but that was scaled back and it was now thought to be semi-autonomous, so would still require driver input.
If the decision is confirmed it signals a major change in strategy for the tech giant. Demand for electric vehicles is increasing, but not at the levels that were hoped for some years ago as costs remain high for vehicles and there are concerns over the availability of the necessary charging infrastructure for them. However, generative AI is developing rapidly and many tech companies are devoting significant resources to the technology, which is anticipated will have many applications for business and domestic use.
Apple has yet to comment formally on whether it is abandoning its electric car dreams.
