Apple's Project Titan is all tumbling down and the electric Apple Car some were expecting is apparently not going to see the light of day in this lifetime.
For a good while now, all signs seemed to point in this direction. We've already heard on several occasions that Apple's Project Titan plans were not going too well and the company was shifting its focus to car software rather than hardware. A new report now reiterates that the Apple Car is not happening.
Citing sources familiar with Apple's Project Titan, Alex Webb and Mark Gurman from Bloomberg report that Apple has "drastically scaled back its automotive ambitions, leading to hundreds of job cuts and a new direction that, for now, no longer includes building its own car."
The duo also report that Apple has broken down and reorganized the Project Titan team, with hundreds of people either departing or facing layoffs. Titan has reportedly been repurposed, now focusing on creating an autonomous driving system that would allow Apple to team up with other automakers or rekindle plans of making its own vehicle sometime in the future.
Moreover, executives have reportedly given the Project Titan team until late 2017 to prove that the autonomous driving system is feasible and decide the direction to take in the end.
Bloomberg's latest report echoes previous rumbles hinting at an imminent Project Titan demise, or at least its current form. Back in September, for instance, another report revealed that Apple was rebooting Project Titan and cutting dozens of jobs, aiming to refocus on software.
Webb and Gurman now report hundreds of layoffs, not dozens as the previous report indicated, which could mean a downward spiral for the ambitious Project Titan.
Judging by recent reports and the progress Apple has made so far with Project Titan (or lack of progress, thereof), it looks increasingly likely that the much-rumored Apple Car will never actually hit the road.
In this context, focusing on self-driving car software might be the best course of action for Apple, especially since autonomous driving is on the rise. If all goes well, who knows? Apple could revisit its automotive ambitions in a few years, when maybe it will be better equipped to go down this path.
For now and likely this decade at least, the Apple Car might take the form of an advanced autonomous driving system, but not an actual car made by Apple.
