Apple's 'Project Titan' at crossroads, team in hiring freeze, source says

Apple has placed a hiring freeze on the team responsible for the company's nascent automotive ambitions after executives became unhappy with the project's direction and progress, AppleInsider has learned.

The change was precipitated by a post-holiday progress review conducted by Apple design chief Jony Ive, according to a previously reliable source with knowledge of the team's activities. Ive is said to have "expressed his displeasure" with the group's headway.

In all, Apple is believed to have more than 1,000 people working on Project Titan at sites both inside and outside of Cupertino. Hiring was so aggressive that Apple's poaching of engineering talent from Tesla is thought to have had a "big impact" on the Elon Musk-led company's ability to keep up with development of future vehicles.

The news comes days after a report that Steve Zadesky, a longtime Apple engineering lead who was initially put in charge of Project Titan, would leave the company. It's not immediately clear whether Zadesky's departure — said to be for "personal reasons" — is related to the staffing restrictions.

Apple's car initiative has seen multiple setbacks in recent months as the company works to meet an ambitious schedule that would have final engineering completed by 2019.

In September, AppleInsider learned that manufacturing issues had forced Apple to consider partnering with an established automaker. The company is thought to have spoken with BMW about a tie-up that could involve using BMW's electric i3 model as a development platform, though the German marque is seemingly reluctant to enter into such an agreement.

Apple is said to be particularly interested in BMW thanks to the company's willingness to move beyond traditional approaches to carmaking with the i3.

91 Comments

xzu 139 comments · 19 Years

About 8 years ago

A Apple car is kinda silly. Car tech makes sense, buying Tesla.. maybe... Build a damn desktop computer and automate the home would be awesome.

monstrosity 2227 comments · 17 Years

I smell bullshit timely released to drive AAPL down before QR

cnocbui 3612 comments · 17 Years

I think this project just hit a patch of black ice, skidded off the road and plunged into a ravine.

Scratch that 'next big thing'

How about we do a TV guys?

maestro64 5029 comments · 19 Years

xzu said:

A Apple car is kinda silly. Car tech makes sense, buying Tesla.. maybe... Build a damn desktop computer and automate the home would be awesome.

At this point I am not sure how Apple would improve upon the user experience of driving. Personally I am not into self driving cars, self driving train that works for me. But driving a cars is a personal experience I enjoy doing. Today I take mostly back road driving to work which I a little longer but I enjoy the drive far better than taking the regular commute routes.
But automating the home is a far more complicated problems, not every home in the world is built the same way so their are so many problems to solve this will only complicated the solution. In a sense, it easy to build a car than automate most homes, The car you control all the systems in a home someone else over many years made decision about the control systems.

Mr_Grey 118 comments · 8 Years

... Apple is said to be particularly interested in BMW thanks to the company's willingness to move beyond traditional approaches to carmaking (sic) with the i3.

I've read multiple accounts that imply that the real reason they want to "work with BMW," is because what they've come up with in their lab is so similar to the i3, that they fear lawsuits if they move forward independently.

Also, "carmaking" is not a real word.