Bloomberg reports Apple has cooled the jets on its automotive aspirations, cutting hundreds of jobs and heading in a new direction. The “Project Titan” team has refocused their ambitions, now working on an autonomous driving system.
Hundreds of members of the car team, which comprises about 1,000 people, have been reassigned, let go, or have left of their own volition in recent months, the people said, asking not to be identified because the moves aren’t public.
Focusing on auto-driving tech gives Apple the flexibility to either partner with an existing carmaker, or return to building its own vehicle at some point in the future. While Apple may have let go or reassigned a number of employees, the actual number of team members working on the project has remained approximately the same, as they have hired new employees to aid in the new direction.
Bloomberg’s sources indicate Apple has given the car team a deadline of late 2017 to prove the self-driving system is feasible, and decide on a final direction for the automotive project. When contacted for comment, Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr declined to comment.
The new moves follow months of disagreements over the program’s strategy, leadership changes, and other challenges. The highly-regarded Bob Mansfield, who helped develop the original iPad, transitioned in April from a part-time role at the company to lead the automobile team.
Following Mansfield’s return to action, he took the stage in a meeting of Titan employees to announce he has taken a close look at the project and determined the focus should move from building an entire vehicle to creating a self-driving component that could be used in partnership with other companies, such as Tesla.
The layoffs and personnel moves began soon after the announcement; some employees left voluntarily, due to their own doubts that an Apple Car would ever hit showrooms. Other employees were cut, with the first wave of layoffs coming in August, followed by another wave of cuts in September.
