Apple has reportedly spent over $10 billion on its Apple Car project over the last decade, but the project has now been called off. The project, which started in 2014, was aimed at developing a self-driving electric car. Despite the huge investment in research, development, and employing thousands of engineers and experts, the project faced numerous challenges and struggles.
Employees within Apple had doubts about the project’s success from the beginning, and even CEO Tim Cook, who signed off on the project, knew it would be difficult to execute. Discussions were held with Elon Musk about purchasing Tesla, but Apple ultimately decided to build its own car.
Over the course of 10 years, the project had four different leads and notably struggled to develop autonomous driving software. More than 2,000 employees who were working on the project are now being redistributed within Apple.
Despite the setback, Apple plans to apply the learnings from the project to other technologies like AI-powered AirPods and augmented reality. The full details on the downfall of the Apple Car project can be found in The New York Times report.
The news of the Apple Car project being scrapped comes as a surprise to many, given the significant investment and high expectations surrounding the project. It remains to be seen what impact this decision will have on Apple’s future innovation efforts in the automotive industry.
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