Valued 2.82 trillion dollars, the second-largest company in the world by market capitalization has reportedly canceled Project Titan. Better known as the Apple Car, said venture dates back to 2014.
Heaven knows how many billions of dollars later, Bloomberg reports that Apple canned Project Titan. The cited publication understands from people in the know that two of the Cupertino giant's high-ranking execs disclosed the bad news. A public announcement has yet to be made. Bloomberg further states that nearly 2,000 employees will switch to generative AI projects, generative AI meaning artificial intelligence focused on creating new content.
In simple terms, generative AI can turn text inputs into an image or a video. The opposite also stands true, and generative AI can also create music. This kind of artificial intelligence is trained to scour the Internet for information in order to create new content. Similarly obvious, generative artificial intelligence cannot provide any content without inputted prompts from humans.
People with inside knowledge of Project Titan stated that chief operating officer Jeff Williams and vice president of technology Kevin Lynch announced the 2,000-odd employees about the project's termination. Said employees are internally referred to as the Special Projects Group (SPG).
The artificial intelligence division is headed by John Giannandrea, whose official role within the company is senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy. Prior to joining the Cupertino-based colossus, he worked for Google.
Photo: tedoradze.giorgi via Instagram
Bloomberg claims that Project Titan further comprises a few hundred car designers and hardware engineers. Most likely, they will be moved to different roles. The publication also understands that some employees will be unfortunately laid off.
Shrouded in secrecy from the very beginning, Project Titan was confirmed in 2015 by Apple's former senior vice president of the iPod division. According to Tony Fadell, the late Steve Jobs considered building an Apple car back in 2008.
Prior to the yet-unconfirmed cancelation, Apple purportedly delayed the car's launch to 2028. It also reduced self-driving capability from SAE Level 4 to SAE Level 2+, which is hugely disappointing if you remember that Mercedes-Benz AG gained approval for Level 3 autonomy in California and Nevada back in September 2023.
Adding insult to injury, the Xiaomi SU7 was designed with Level 4 autonomy in mind. The Chinese outfit's first-ever automobile is pretty impressive from a performance standpoint as well. Mercedes and BMW veterans James Qiu, Tianyuan Li, and Chris Bangle had a big say in the sedan's design, a battery-electric sedan that clocks 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph) in 2.78 seconds.
The performance-oriented version is called SU7 Max, whereas the standard rear-wheel-drive specification is listed with a zero to 100-kph time of 5.3 seconds. Benchmarked against the Porsche Taycan, the Speed Ultra Seven entered series production in December 2023 at the BAIC Off-Road Vehicle Co. assembly plant in Beijing, China.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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