For a decade, many Apple employees working on the company’s secretive car project, internally code-named Titan, referred to it less flatteringly as the ‘Titanic disaster.’ They recognized the project’s high likelihood of failure.
Throughout its existence, the car project was repeatedly scrapped and restarted, resulting in the departure of hundreds of workers. The project’s evolution was shaped by conflicting visions among Apple’s leadership regarding what an Apple car should be. It began as an electric vehicle designed to compete with Tesla, later transforming into a self-driving car intended to rival Google’s Waymo.
By the time of its cancellation, announced internally on Tuesday, with many team members reassigned to artificial intelligence work, Apple had invested more than $10 billion in the project. The car concept had reverted to its initial form: an electric vehicle equipped with driving-assistance features comparable to Tesla’s, according to several individuals who worked on the project during the past decade.
The car project’s failure highlights Apple’s struggles in developing new products since Steve Jobs’s death in 2011. The effort had four different leaders and underwent multiple rounds of layoffs. The project ultimately floundered, primarily because developing the software and algorithms required for a car with autonomous driving capabilities proved exceedingly difficult.
Apple chose not to comment on the matter.
“When it started, the project seemed like something Apple alone could achieve a major success with,” said Bryant Walker Smith, an associate professor at the University of South Carolina’s schools of law and engineering, who briefly spoke to Apple about the project in 2015. ‘A decade later, the landscape has changed, making the endeavor high-risk with limited potential rewards.’
When Apple launched its car project in 2014, it was among a wave of investors, executives, engineers, and companies pursuing the idea of a self-driving car. Following Google’s public road testing of prototypes in California, there was a widespread belief throughout Silicon Valley that autonomous vehicles would soon become mainstream. Apple was determined not to fall behind.
