Apple Reportedly Lays Off Dozens Working on Self-Driving Car Project
One of the most talked about initiatives in both the car and tech worlds is Apple's long-rumored, but never confirmed interest in building an autombile. We first heard about Apple's car project, code-named Titan, last February, but in recent months, things have seemed tumultuous. Project Titan's director, Steve Zadesky, reportedly left the company earlier this year, and now, Apple is apparently gutted the rest the team.
Per a Friday New York Times report, Apple has laid off "dozens" working on its self-driving car project, and is said to be rethinking Project Titan's ultimate aims. The move comes a few months after Apple reportedly brought on hardware veteran Bob Mansfield to replace Zadesky at Project Titan.
Bloomberg reported earlier this summer that under Mansfield, the project shifted focus from developing a car itself, to developing autonomous driving software. Apple has yet to publicly confirm the car's existence and it has only tested its self-driving tech in secret.
Project Titan allegedly employs over 1000 people, and Apple is said to target 2019 as a "ship date" for whatever it's working on. After this round of lay-offs, it's unclear if the ship date has changed.
As the Times notes, this shift comes at a time when many automotive and tech companies are very publicly pushing forward in their efforts to get self-driving cars on the road. Ride-hailing app Uber will soon start testing self-driving Volvos in Pittsburgh, Fiat Chrysler and Google recently announced a significant partnership, and Ford has promised fully autonomous cars by 2021.
Since Apple hasn't confirmed anything, we don't know for sure what's going on, and with Apple's history of secrecy, we won't learn much from the company itself.
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