Apple is abandoning one of the most ambitious projects in the history of the company, pulling the plug a decade-long, multi-billion dollar effort to build an electric car, Bloomberg News reports citing “people with knowledge of the matter.”
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
Apple made the disclosure internally Tuesday, surprising the nearly 2,000 employees working on the project, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the announcement wasn’t public. The decision was shared by Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams and Kevin Lynch, a vice president in charge of the effort, according to the people.
The two executives told staffers that the project will begin winding down and that many employees on the team working on the car — known as the Special Projects Group, or SPG — will be shifted to the artificial intelligence division under executive John Giannandrea. Those employees will focus on generative AI projects, an increasingly key priority for the company.
The Apple car team also has several hundred hardware engineers and car designers. It’s possible that they will be able to apply for jobs on other Apple teams. There will be layoffs, but it’s unclear how many.
MacDailyNews Take: The writing has been on the wall for electric vehicles for some time now. Even Tim Cook’s Apple can now finally read it.
What we have here is a company that was once led by a visionary who set the agenda for entire industries, now led by a reactive caretaker who heard somewhere that VR headsets and electric cars were the next big things (probably read it in Wired), so that’s what he had Apple do, while completely missing artificial intelligence, especially generative AI, and now is scrambling to catch up to something Steve Jobs would have focused on long before anyone ever even heard of OpenAI.
Steve Jobs bought Siri in April 2010. Steve Jobs would never have ignored Siri, basically let it rot, for well over a decade and counting. Steve Jobs would have made Siri the first conversational generative AI assistant years before anyone else. And the company would today be worth at least a trillion dollars more than it is currently. (Yes, we’re lowballing that estimate.)
Tim’s not a product person, per se. – Steve Jobs
See also:
• Apple said to be spending ‘millions of dollars a day’ on generative AI to supercharge Siri – September 7, 2023
• Apple’s Siri turns ten, still acts like a two-year-old – October 4, 2021
• Former Apple employees reflect on Siri’s ‘squandered lead’ over Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant – March 14, 2018
Clearly, Apple is not as innovative as it was under Steve Jobs, but the company — thanks to Jobs’ work and Cook’s subsequent management of iterations of products and services conceived during Jobs’ tenure — now has more than enough money to make up for Cook’s lack of vision.
Until it gets another visionary leader (fingers crossed; Apple’s history has shown – cough, Sculley, Spindler, cough – that the next CEO could be far, far worse than the very competent caretaker Cook), Apple can afford to miss things like generative AI – which they clearly did – and then use its huge war chest to catch up – which they’re doing right now (fun times and 80-hour weeks inside Apple Park!) – and, hopefully, surpass rivals (or at least be as good). Apple will very likely unveil their catch-up work within months (this June at WWDC 2024) in iPhones (and iPads, Apple Watches, etc.) with built-in on-device generative AI and other new AI-driven features. – MacDailyNews, February 14, 2024
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So is Apple Car considered vaporware now or a victim of the Osborne effect?
Apple Car is a victim of the Cook effect. He can’t see where things are going so you get billions of dollars wasted chasing the wrong things and no real movement in important areas like generative AI until after the fact – then it’s a mad scramble to try to catch up.
Cook effect… sounds like a future meme.
Yes, Apple is Cooked…
For how many years has MDN flouted and touted the Apple car and how it would put Tesla and others into the grave…how perfect it would be taking advantage of the mistakes of others, etc. How many iCal’d posts do they have touting how wrong the doubters would be. I’d really love to know.
The key phrase is ‘how many years…’.
Now think of how many reusable rockets SpaceX has developed in the same time frame.
Yes, if Apple carried through it would probably be great, but the market won’t be so…..
The Apple Car gave them leverage to get CarPlay everywhere. They’re probably at the Car stage where they need to fish or cut bait. Not much more to do as far as designing the thing. Getting self-driving to work will certainly still get some dedicated engineers, just in case. They could un-mothball the thing at a later date and update if desired. I’m glad they’re closing up shop. I still wonder about Vision Pro. It doesn’t make sense until it’s simple light glasses. They probably could have waited another 2-3 years for version one. I think Tim Cook is a short-timer and he wanted the glory. With the car out of the way I think Tcook could announce retirement any day.
Now that the Apple Car is cancelled the leverage may shift and all those vehicle OEMs will be pushing to allow visual customizations for their brand.
Now maybe focus fixing your crap for email service. Still cannot effectively stop spam.
How about a 32″ monitor that doesn’t cost $6200!
Or a mouse you can charge while working with it? 😉
lol true!
Apple learned a LOT! They learned to never start a program with very few specs and end-goals. They built so many high-tech solutions the costs became outrageous and what to cut what to keep? Keep few new big ideas, make it more affordable but it’s just a me-too. Add in mind-blowing tech (front windshield AR Vision Pro if you will) and costs are obtainable for almost no one…
There was now way with rising EV costs, and everyone but Tesla losing massive dollars with each EV sold and Tesla’s margins falling and falling and falling, if Apple can’t make money they aren’t doing it.
It was a smart play to end this. What would be smart it to re-assemble a team next year and look at hydrogen like Toyota is pushing big-time into… And if they want to do a vehicle, look at something where they can Tesla the market. Build out their own stations, bring the vehicles and go for it. Hydrogen is the long-term future if anything to replace oil use. Nothing else yet is even close.
A coal powered car with no steering wheel and no gas pedal. Sounds like a huge market. I imagine they spent more than half a trillion on it to the decide to end it.
EVs, Unsafe at any Speed!🔥🔥🔥
I don’t want a self driving EV, I want an inexpensive low tech diesel pickup.
“front windshield AR Vision Pro if you will”
If they actually had developed a non-passthrough AR system for their car, I would highly recommend Apple use it for the next AVP. Imagining using the current AVP passthrough in a car would be an immediate fail.
A self driving vehicle would have required lots of AI research, which can now be spun off onto other hardware things, such as the Apple Vision Pro. So all that research has not been not lost.
Looks similar to what happened when they were working on the Apple Television for a while and then shelved it when they saw that Televisions were racing towards commoditization. The very same thing is happening with EVs as china races towards commoditization of electric vehicles. Not the place for Apple to thrive. They should have seen it coming a lot sooner.
I don’t think they spent $500 billion to a trillion on a TV set.
I would imagine that rather than commoditization, Apple was worried at how many different set sizes they would have to deliver to meet their various user’s needs. Unlike Amazon Fire, Google TV, Roku, etc. Apple is not prone to having their OS in another company’s product. Probably the only exception is CarPlay since they gave up on creating the Apple Car. One of the first things Steve Jobs did when he returned to Apple was to reduce the number of iterations of products. Too bad it’s already going in that direction with the iPads.
Until cars can be made truly autonomous, they’re not interesting as an Apple product.
Despite Musk’s vapourware announcements, cars are nowhere near fully autonomous.
One day Apple may show the world how cars are supposed to be. Until we get there, I certainly don’t want a car that’s just a Camry with an Apple badge on it.
Bonus: every advancement Apple makes with focused attention on AI, is a step closer to an autonomous Apple car even when they’re not working on one.
The problem is Apple has lost its focus and reason for being in business. Yes, as some have noted above, Apple may get a lot of AI and etc. out of the failed car project. And this certainly isn’t the first time Apple tried to launch a product that failed: Newton & Camera to name two. But it doesn’t change the fact Apple no longer has the same focus it once had.
Under Steve’s leadership, Apple was singularly focused on empowering its customers to achieve greater productivity to impact their world for good. This was accomplished via innovation with the end users experience being the primary canon of measuring success. Finances, market share, and stock prices, while important, were not the measure of success. Products were chosen on the basis of making customers productive and excitedly satisfied.
Under Tim Cook, the narrative has been flipped. . Finances, global market share, and stock prices are now the gold standard. Therefore, product development is driven by financial, political, and social agendas.
Apple is no longer asking itself what technologies are on ascendancy that can transform for how people work, create, and relate. Now it’s all about selling more products, market share, and profits for advancing climate and social agendas.
Totally disagree.
A fully autonomous Apple Car would have made customers productive and excitedly satisfied in ways that are hard to imagine.
Apple Car owners would free up an entire hour or two EACH DAY. Kids could have full mobility with the self-driving family car. Anyone without an Apple Car of their own could summon a luxurious-but-cheap car service with the press of an iPhone button.
the first time an apple ev ran over a person then the headlines would be brutal. And in a few years apple cars would start to age and tarnish their image with old cars breaking down. Imagine the logistical nightmare of maintaining service, repair, inventory for a fleet of automobiles. The fact is the anemic automotive profit margins make no sense for Apple and its 35% hardware margins. The best news we could get from Apple is they have put this fairy smoke pipe down.
But I’m still not sure Apple can navigate the AI space. Maybe internally apple can utilize AI but can you imagine the woke guard rails and road blocks they will put on an Apple GPT. They have a unique opportunity to stand out with on device security and privacy but Im sure they will step on their on feet in an attempt to be the self appointed social justice nannies,
EV is not an ascending technology. It’s being driven by political ideology not science or technology.
Also, no one has yet to show how EVs tie into or extend the Apple ecosystem. One of the biggest advantages of using Apple’s ecosystem is the seamless integration of their products that genuinely augment and extend productivity and connectivity. A EV just doesn’t do this. Someone doesn’t need an EV to do hands free texting, calling, or FaceTime chatting.
An EV is a cool idea but in Apple’s case it’s evidence of a lack of focus. Steve Jobs often a company needs to learn to say no to a lot of good things in order to build insanely great things. There is nothing insanely great or innovative about EVs.
Not this one…I enjoy driving and do not trust my life to a computer program.
Smart move by AAPL. Churl, of course, will cavil.😎
It may seem a little unfair to compare Cook with Jobs, but he’s the CEO of Apple and if he doesn’t share the same vision that Jobs had, he should be grateful for what Apple has done for him and move on. Allow another visionary to take the helm. Someone who’s in-tune with the kind of innovation where consumers can’t wait for what’s coming from the company. Vision Pro may be a great product in their line-up, but it doesn’t excite the masses.
some say that Steve’s greatest mistake was appointing Tim as his replacement, not that Tim is bad at what he did but rather he lacks the vision and intuition to lead Apple to new ground. My worry is when Tim decides to step down he will hire someone that fulfills his true passion of social and climate justice not someone that is true computer visionary. What’s the actual chance he replaces himself with someone qualified in ways that he isn’t. Apple desperately needs someone that can “Think Different” but I’m betting that’s a not so favorable trait at apple now.
With Mercedes in retreat, Tesla sales slowing, Ford Lightnings haven’t sparked, Rivian lighting cash on fire, and other EV models struggling, it just makes sense that Apple was not going to offer anything unique enough to overcome market conditions.
Releasing an EV would bring great risk and liability to its core business as well.
I hope they can return to really advancing the art of CarPlay and how to increase battery efficiency.
Man, I was wishing for the scenario where I could call AppleCare and get Mater to come pull us out of a snow bank here in Upstate NY.
For an actual thoughtful perspective rather the MDN vitriol see
https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/02/28/apple-will-reap-the-rewards-of-the-cancelled-apple-car-project-for-decades