The so-called ‘Apple Car’ is one of the company’s most ambitious projects that will not live to see a launch.
Apple, one of the most valuable companies on the planet with a market cap nearing $3 trillion, has decided to abandon its efforts to develop its own automobile, according to people familiar with the company’s internal operations.
The tech giant has spent the past decade working its way toward an automobile, reportedly dedicating nearly 2,000 employees of its 160,000-plus-strong workforce toward the project, including “several hundred” engineers and designers, according to Bloomberg‘s report on the matter. At the moment, it’s unclear how many of those employees will be laid off, as Apple did not issue an official comment on Tuesday as news of its automotive development ripples through the media landscape.
Instead of building a car, Apple will instead shift some resources toward generative AI. As a cornerstone for every major tech company this decade, investors seem to be responding positively to the cancellation of its car project. In fact, the company’s share prices briefly rose about 3% in mid-afternoon trading, before settling back down to a 0.8% overall gain for the day.
If the Apple Car actually did make it to market, the company envisioned charging around $100,000 for each vehicle it sold. However, high development costs coupled with executive skepticism about profit margins and repeated delays — the latest rumors suggested a release by 2028 — seem to have driven the ultimate decision to scrap the project.
After earlier reports suggesting the Apple Car was at a make-or-break point, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams and vice president of the project Kevin Lynch reportedly shared the decision to cancel its development to impacted employees.
Even though it will not bring its own car to market, we could well see Apple’s investment into artificial intelligence play out in future vehicles. Not only has it invested more than $100 million toward R&D over the past five years, but its foothold in the automotive infotainment space through Apple CarPlay and further advancements toward in-car AI, especially to rival Google and Microsoft, could result in a seismic shift in how we operate and experience our cars in the next few years.
