Under the wave of artificial intelligence (AI), ambitious Apple chose to abandon its ten-year car making plan.
On February 27th local time, multiple foreign media reported that Apple had disclosed internally that it would stop its electric vehicle project. According to insiders, Apple's Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams and Vice President Kevin Lynch, who is responsible for this task, agreed to this decision. This decision surprised nearly 2000 employees of the car manufacturing project, leading to the layoff of automotive hardware employees and the transfer of some employees to Apple's artificial intelligence (AI) department.
Apple's dream of making cars dates back to the era of Steve Jobs
In fact, Apple's car making dream is not something that has only emerged in recent years. Before the release of the iPhone, Apple executives, including Steve Jobs, seriously considered developing cars and even met with representatives from car manufacturers. But in 2008, it was explicitly decided not to pursue the idea of car manufacturing, but to focus on the iPhone, and due to the huge success of the iPhone, car manufacturing was no longer talked about.
In 2013, Apple was once again associated with cars due to its iOS system, and launched the "iOS in the car" program, hoping to fully integrate iOS 7 into the in car systems of major mainstream car manufacturers.
In 2014, Apple officially began exploring the electric vehicle project and referred to it as the "Titan Project", with the goal of creating a fully automatic electric vehicle with a luxury sedan interior and voice navigation function. In just one year, the team has expanded to a scale of 1000 people, including outstanding talents from car companies such as Tesla, Chrysler, Volkswagen Group, etc., including former Tesla Vice President Chris Porritt.
Due to Apple's aggressive poaching behavior, it has caused dissatisfaction among Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who publicly criticized Apple and referred to it as "Tesla's grave" - any Tesla talent poached by Apple will lead to mediocrity. At the same time, the news that Apple will seek partners to jointly build cars has pushed up the stock prices of all potential partners.
In the following years, Apple went on a frenzy of poaching people and applying for related patents. Just as the outside world thought that Apple cars were about to be released, Apple changed its leadership several times internally. However, without exception, none of them were the core executives with high internal discourse power, lacking the will to win in a back-to-back battle, which also led to an awkward situation where its car manufacturing route was constantly swaying.
Delayed from 2024 to 2028, finally dismounted
From Jonathan Ivy's earliest proposal to focus on the development of fully automated driving software technology, breaking the original path of semi-automatic driving; "Benchmarking Tesla" proposed by Doug Field, the head of Tesla Model 3, after joining; Later on, there was an internal rumor of prioritizing mass production and implementation, and a development path of prioritizing the level of autonomous driving technology. Over the years, Apple has been on the rise, repeatedly declining, and eventually running out.
According to previous reports, in April 2021, Apple invested 4 trillion Korean won (approximately 3.6 billion US dollars) in Kia Motors as part of a partnership with Korean car manufacturers to produce electric vehicles. The two companies plan to launch Apple cars in 2024, with an initial goal of selling 100000 cars per year.
In 2022, Apple adjusted its goal to go public in 2026 and achieve L4 level autonomous driving. However, according to the revelations in January this year, Apple's goal has changed again. "L2+level autonomous driving, products that are on par with Tesla's existing products, will not have significant breakthroughs, and plans to be launched in 2028.".
However, this news was once seen as a compromise between Apple and itself, but behind it was the result of Apple's board of directors pressuring Apple executives such as CEO Tim Cook to consider shutting down the project if it cannot even be completed in 2028.
But so far, Apple's biggest move into the automotive industry is its CarPlay software, which allows drivers to access features such as maps and Siri on the iPhone.
The reporter learned that Apple has invested billions of dollars in car manufacturing projects, and few projects can last so long, involve so many employees, and cost billions of dollars. The car making plan that has come to an end now means that the return on investment from Apple's initial investment may be minimized.
Apple did not comment on the termination of the car manufacturing plan. It is worth noting that Musk expressed his attitude towards this news. He replied with a saluting emoji and a cigarette on social media. Although there is no written statement, the profound meaning behind it can also be seen.
Before the announcement of the termination of the car manufacturing plan, Apple's stock price showed a downward trend. As this project, which has invested billions of dollars but has never yielded results, Apple's stock price quickly rose, rising 0.81% as of Tuesday's close. This may to some extent represent the current attitude of the capital market towards "Apple making cars".