Apple Pulls Plug on Self-Driving EV Plans

American tech giant Apple has reportedly shelved its secret plans to develop a self-driving electric vehicle for the nascent EV industry. The company has spent the past 10 years working on the ambitious Project Titan, but multiple reports say Apple is now turning its attention to artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Apple is estimated to have spent billions of dollars and dedicated 2,000 workers to the autonomous vehicle project over the past decade. Multiple reports now say the teams working on Project Titan will be transferred to AI development divisions while some will likely be laid off. However, the number of Apple employees that will be affected by Project Titan’s closure is still unclear.

Bloomberg first reported news of the project’s cancellation on Feb. 27, 2024. The publication said chief operating officer Jeff Williams and Kevin Lynch, a vice president in the autonomous vehicle project, shared the decision. According to Bloomberg, the two officials said Project Titan would start winding down while some of the project’s staff, referred to as the Special Projects Group (SPG), would be transferred to the company’s fledgling AI segment under the helm of John Giannandrea to work on generative AI.

Hundreds of vehicle designers and hardware engineers who were on the self-driving project may also be able to apply for transfers to other Apple departments. While the tech giant declined to comment on the matter, news of the project’s closure caused Apple share prices to rise by around 1% to $182.63.

Apple’s ambitious plans to develop a self-driving car ran into multitudes of challenges from the very start. The company particularly struggled to develop the self-driving technology at the heart of autonomous vehicles despite testing its self-driving system with dozens of cars on American roads. But with development costs adding up amid falling EV prices and a cooler electric vehicle market, Apple is winding down its EV plans entirely. Similarly, major automakers such as Ford and General Motors have scaled back their electrification plans in response to lackluster demand and diminishing sales in the United States and European Union.

Tesla also noted that it would have a “notably lower” expansion rate this year while a UBS forecast estimates that sales growth in the domestic electric vehicle industry will fall from 47% in 2023 to only 11% in 2024.

Existing EV makers such as Kandi Technologies Group Inc. (NASDAQ: KNDI) will have to find creative ways to survive the current dip in the demand for electric vehicles until sales gather steam once again.

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