Apple calls off decade long electric car project: Report

Apple has called off working on its electric car, a decade after the project was kicked off, a person in the know informed Reuters.

The project had seen unsteady success throughout its lifespan and its end comes at a time when global automakers are slashing investments in electric vehicles, which has seen a plunge in demand, the newswire reported. 

Many people working on this project will be moved to the firm's AI unit, as per Bloomberg News, which first reported this development. 

Apple refrained from offering comments to the newswire. 

Apple has to date refrained from making any big announcements in artificial intelligence, in stark comparison to tech peers such as Microsoft and Google, both of whom have a first mover advantage in amalgamating the breakthrough technology. 

The California-based technology company had begun work on Project Titan, ten years ago, when there was a wave of interest in self driving cars in Silicon Valley. 

Apple had laid off 190 workers from the group in 2019 after revamping its software approach, the newswire reported. 

The design of the concept car also changed from a radical, steering-wheel-free autonomous vehicle that would have been a departure from traditional automotive design to a more conventional car with advanced driver-assistance features, Reuters reported. 

News of the project had initially raised hopes that Apple may replicate the success of the iPhone, whose fresh design and clean interface helped alter the handheld phone market.

One of Apple’s biggest stumbling blocks was the car’s platform. As previously reported by Autocar UK, the brand never formally secured a platform or a manufacturing partner for the car, but the appointment of ex-Lamborghini chassis chief Luigi Taraborrelli suggested it would create its own in-house. However, this never appeared to materialise.