(San Francisco) For the past decade, many Apple employees working on the company’s secret car project, code-named Titan, had given it a less flattering name: the car disaster. Titanic. They knew the project was doomed to failure.
Throughout its existence, the car project was alternately abandoned and restarted, leading to the layoffs of hundreds of employees. Due to differences of opinion between executives, Apple first planned to build an electric vehicle intended to compete with Tesla, then a self-driving car intended to compete with Google’s Waymo.
At the time of his death – on Tuesday, when executives announced internally that the project was being abandoned and many team members were being reassigned to work on artificial intelligence – Apple had spent more than US$10 billion on the project and the car was once again an electric vehicle with driver assistance features rivaling those of Tesla, according to a half-dozen people who worked on the project over the past decade.
The disappearance of the car project reflects the difficulty Apple has had in developing new products since the death of Steve Jobs in 2011. The project was led by four different people and resulted in several waves of layoffs. But it festered and eventually died out largely because developing software and algorithms for a car with self-driving capabilities proved too difficult.
Apple declined to comment.
Initially, enthusiasm
“In the beginning, the stars were aligned for Apple to strike a big blow as only it could do,” explains Bryant Walker Smith, associate professor in the schools of law and engineering at the University of South Carolina, who, in 2015, briefly spoke to Apple about his project. “Ten years later, the stars had realigned in such a way that this project became a very risky and unprofitable undertaking. »
When Apple launched its car project in 2014, investors, executives, engineers and companies were jockeying to become the first to build an autonomous car.
After Google began testing prototypes on public roads in California, voices in Silicon Valley trumpeted that autonomous vehicles would soon be commonplace. Apple didn’t want to be left behind.
At the time, the company was facing questions from its top engineers eager to learn about its next big project, according to three people familiar with the project’s origins. The company had just completed the Apple Watch and many engineers were eager to start working on something new. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, approved the project in part to prevent an exodus of engineers to Tesla.
Apple also needed to find new ways to grow its business. The company expected iPhone sales to slow in coming years. Cars are part of a transport sector which weighs 2000 billion US dollars and which was likely to help Apple, whose turnover then amounted to almost 200 billion US dollars.
Then, obstacles
Despite the Apple CEO’s vote of confidence, team members knew they were up against harsh realities, according to the six employees familiar with the project. If it eventually came to market, an Apple car would likely cost at least US$100,000 and generate minimal profit compared to smartphones and headphones. It would also come at a time when Tesla has dominated the market for years.
Apple has spoken with Elon Musk about the possibility of acquiring Tesla, according to two people familiar with those discussions. But she ultimately decided it made more sense to build her own car than to buy and incorporate another company.
Elon Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
From the start, the project was troubled by differing opinions about what it should be, people familiar with the matter say. Steve Zadesky, who initially led the project, wanted to build an electric vehicle that would compete with Tesla. Jony Ive, Apple’s design director, wanted to create a self-driving car, which the software team believed was possible.
Apple, which had $155 billion in cash at the time, spent lavishly hiring hundreds of people with experience in machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence technology, and other capabilities crucial to making a autonomous car. The influx of people made this project one of the first that Apple had developed with so many people from outside the company’s culture.
Layoffs
To support morale and direction, star leaders like Mr. Ive and Mac engineering chief Bob Mansfield got involved. The company has acquired several start-ups to join the team. In 2021, to carry out the project, Apple entrusted responsibility for the car to Kevin Lynch, the person responsible for the famous Apple Watch.
Mr. Ive and his team of designers drew up concepts for a car that would look like a European minivan like the Fiat Multipla 600, with half a dozen windows and a curved roof. It would not have a steering wheel and would be controlled by Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri.
But by 2016, it was clear that the car project was in trouble. Zadesky left Apple, and his successor, Mansfield, told the team working on the project that they would shift their focus from building a car to building self-driving software. say three people familiar with this change.
Apple has obtained approvals from California to begin testing Lexus sport utility vehicles equipped with sensors and computers. It spoke with automakers like BMW, Nissan and Mercedes-Benz before striking a deal with Volkswagen in which the manufacturer would provide Transporter vans that would serve as self-driving shuttles on Apple’s campus.
In the years that followed, two other executives took over the car work. Doug Field, a former Tesla executive, laid off more than 200 employees assigned to the project as he focused on building his self-driving system. Then Mr. Lynch, who succeeded him in recent years, reversed course and returned to the original idea of building an electric vehicle.
Mansfield and Field did not respond to requests for comment.
At the start of the year, Apple management decided that it made more sense to work on generative artificial intelligence than on cars, the company said during an internal meeting on Tuesday. The company said some members of the Project Titan team would be reassigned to work on artificial intelligence.
In interviews given Wednesday to New York Timespeople who worked on the project welcomed the decision to end it, saying the technology behind generative AI could be invaluable to the future of the company’s all-important iPhone business.
This article was originally published in the New York Times.
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