Apple has canceled an ambitious decade-long effort to develop an electric car with self-driving capabilities, according to reports Tuesday.
Bloomberg News first reported that Apple AAPL,
Executives made the announcement internally on Tuesday, and that some employees on the car team will be moved to other parts of the company, especially Apple's artificial intelligence division. Other workers are likely to be laid off.
The Wall Street Journal and New York Times later confirmed this report. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This effort, dubbed “Project Titan,” has been rumored for years, with reports ranging from an Apple-branded fully self-driving car with no steering wheel to a more traditional car with limited self-driving features. Apple was reportedly at one point hoping the car could compete with Tesla Inc. TSLA,
Electric cars sell for about $100,000 each.
But the project has faced technological hurdles, numerous delays and a softer market for electric vehicles.
Read also: Amazon lost nearly $1 billion on its investment in Rivian last week
Bloomberg reported in 2021 that Apple was hoping to launch the car by 2025; In 2022, efforts were reported to be scaled back and the target date was postponed to 2026.
Last January, Bloomberg reported that Apple had scaled back its plans further, with a new target date of 2028.
In all, Apple spent about a decade and billions of dollars on the project. But it was ultimately deemed too expensive, and unlikely to produce the high profit margins Apple enjoys with its other products, according to Bloomberg.
“The writing was on the wall for Apple with a very different EV landscape shaping up that would have made this an uphill battle,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said. chirp Tuesday. “Most of Project Titan engineers are now focused on AI at Apple, which is the right move.”
Apple shares rose about 1% on Tuesday. The stock is down about 5% year to date, but is up 24% over the past 12 months, compared to the S&P 500's SPX gain of 6.5% in 2024 and a 28% rise over the past year.
