Wesley Hilliard
A detailed report on Apple's decade of Apple Car development reveals five ditched concepts, hubris, and executive failings.
Analysts will no doubt examine Apple's worst-kept secret, Project Titan, for years. With every new report, tidbits emerge that were forgotten with time or never shared outside of closed doors.
The latest story from Bloomberg paints a bleak picture of indecision that ultimately led to the demise of Apple Car and Project Titan. In the decade since 2014, Apple has spent an estimated $10 billion on the project and produced at least five prototypes.
The most interesting takeaway from this winding history is Apple's various design targets. Prototypes included Jony Ive's so-called "Bread Loaf" with club seating, Kevin Lynch's "I-Beam" which lacked a windshield, and the uninspired final prototype that could have passed for a Tesla.
The Bread Loaf would have had Level 5 autonomy. It lacked a steering wheel and had a video game control pad in case the rider needed to take control. It was basically a minivan with a glass roof, whitewall tires, and sliding doors.
The I-Beam was a symmetrical pill-shaped nightmare that lacked front or rear windows. It isn't clear how a rider would take control without seeing out of the front end.
Every prototype that came and went saw multiple redesigns and feature changes, but nothing ever made it to the production stage.
Executives at the top would veto any requests from employees who wanted to scale back the project. An unnamed Apple executive is quoted as saying, "you could have done this 10 years ago" after a recent version included pedals and a steering wheel.
With the end of Project Titan, the 2,000 or so employees face reassignment or layoffs. Many are said to be relocating to Apple's ambitious AI initiatives, which are expected to surface later in 2024.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
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32 Comments
Apple was correct in dumping Project Titan. They don't have any expertise in building any type of car. They would need land and millions of dollars worth of manufacturing equipment. If they wanted to buy Rivian for a fire sale price to get manufacturing facilities and some expertise, I might go for it but they'd need to do a lot of work on fixing Rivian's vehicles plus come up with a respectable sedan. There is room for an American EV manufacturer, Tesla can't build all the EVs without building several more manufacturing facilities.
Just millions? Try hundreds of millions or several billion to just start to build the infrastructure to make a car even Apple eventually knows when their hubris has gone to far.
What a shi* show this whole effort was. Aimless. Indecisive. Bloated
Responsibility falls on TC and the senior management team
it’s okay to say “No”. It’s not okay to take 10 years and 2,000 people to get there
You lost me at "a story from Bloomberg..." This the same Bloomberg that reported the Big Hack chinese spy chips that are rampant?