No Car Will Be the New Apple Car

After numerous rumored postponements to the vehicle’s intended release, repeated strategy disagreements, large-scale layoffs, and the loss of key team members assigned to the self-driving vehicle project, it appears that Apple is scrapping the idea of building a car entirely.

According to Bloomberg, hundreds of members of Apple’s Project Titan have been laid off, reassigned to other projects, or have outright quit over the last few months. As a result, the initiative has been embarrassingly “refocused” once again.

In 2015, Apple expanded its autonomous vehicle project from 200 people to over a thousand, frequently poaching experts from the automotive and tech sectors. Given the size of the team, it certainly looked like Apple was committed to bringing a car to market. But as deadlines slipped and more employees headed for the exit, that seemed less and less likely.

Now it just isn’t happening. This time around, the refocusing doesn’t include a production — or even prototype — vehicle at all. Instead, Apple has given itself a deadline of late next year to establish a self-driving system and decide the fate of the entire project. So, assuming the project survives at all, Apple will likely be using it to develop technology for existing automakers that may want an autonomous vehicle — Ford for example.

Reports on the issues surrounding the project’s ignominious breakdown highlight inconsistent management. One anonymous source interviewed by Bloomberg even referred to it as “an incredible failure of leadership.”

Bob Mansfield has headed Project Titan since Steve Zadesky’s departure earlier this year, providing oversight as hundreds of hardware engineers working on elements of the physical vehicle were cut from the program — the final nail in the iCar’s coffin. The remaining software engineers will continue progress on autonomous programs, driving sensors, and simulators to test the technology (should it actually be implemented on an actual vehicle). As stated earlier, they have until next year to do so.