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Apple ’s secretive car project died without ever seeing the light of sidereal day . It ’s a meet end , see we ’ve collectively spent the last decennary aware of it withoutreallyknowing too much about what the technical school colossus was planning .
Neither has Apple , apparently . Dozens of contemporaneous report over that yoke clued the public into the vague outlines of what Tim Cook was trying to achieve . But even as thousands of masses cycled through the so - called Project Titan — to the point that at times it felt like almost every EV technologist in the industry was obligated to do a tour of duty — the fine details remain obscure . The only affair that ever seemed certain was that Apple could n’t settle on what , exactly , it want to build for more than a year or so at a meter .
Tuesday’sshock announcement , made internally and ferret out ab initio byBloomberg ’s Mark Gurman , brings an end to that decade of speculation . The remnant of Project Titan will surely actuate new questions about the state of the EV and AV industry , or where Apple will find its next big seed of revenue . It also offers a chance to reflect on how remarkably scattershot the project was in the first place .
Apple ’s modus operandi is to have others demonstrate new class , and then use its intent and logistics brawniness to catch grasp of the mart and clinch . It ’s trying to do that now with the Vision Pro . Over the chimneysweeper of Project Titan , though , it was never clear which category Apple want to remake : autonomous vehicle , or electric railcar . At times it looked like one or the other , and for a stretch it seemed like Apple would try both . That involuntariness to commit may be what ultimately condemn the project .
2013
Apple had its eye on the galvanising vehicle space before it truly spun up Project Titan . The San Francisco Chroniclereportsin 2013 that Apple ’s M&A whiz , a former Goldman Sachs banker named Adrian Perica , secretly satisfy with Elon Musk .
Perica had been on a purchasing spree at that point for Apple , and Tesla was still struggle to show itself as an EV automaker as it ramped output of the Model S sedan chair .
Nothing come up of the meeting , though it would n’t be the last time Apple and Musk would intersect path . It ’s also veracious around this time that TeslapoachesDoug Field , who helped lead many Apple ironware intention efforts , to become frailty Chief Executive of its fomite program .
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2014
Apple secretly begins operate on Project Titan , amass talent from legacy automakers like Ford and Mercedes - Benz , as well as employees from other internal divisions . Cookreportedlyapproves the labor and gives iPhone and iPod lead ( and former Ford engineer ) Steve Zadesky the exemption to establish a team of 1,000 citizenry to manoeuver off - site .
Meanwhile , Apple executives tour the reality looking for partners , or perhaps even just advice . Somemeetwith contract manufacturer like Magna Steyr , while Cookreportedlypersonally tour BMW ’s quickness .
2015
The reporters are on to Titan . The Financial Timesbreaks the newsin February that Apple has been hiring automotive expert to work in a unavowed research lab , and The Wall Street Journal immediately follows that up byreportingthat the company is working on an electric vehicle that it describes as “ minivan - like . ” The WSJ report also claims that self - motor technical school “ is not part of Apple ’s current plan . ”
The news is a shock , though the automotive industry initially shrugs it off . Dieter Zetsche , who was the head of Mercedes - Benz parent troupe Daimler at the time , says one week subsequently that he is n’t losing any sleep over Apple’sinterest in building a cable car .
The Richard Morris Hunt is on for more info . People perfect in on the fact that Apple employ graphic designer Marc Newson , who once make a concept car for Ford . Time Magazine asks : Couldthat be a soupcon of what Apple wants to make ? AppleInsiderfindsthe off - campus construction — which has its own codename , SG5 — where the Project Titan squad has plant up shop .
At Apple ’s shareholder coming together in March , someone tells Tim Cook he require the party to buy Tesla . Cook elude and sound out he ’d like Tesla to assume CarPlay . By this time , Tesla has hoovered up at least 150 Apple employee , far more thanfrom any other company .
In May , chief operating officer Jeff Williamssaysat an event : “ the gondola is the ultimate wandering twist , is n’t it ? ” Apple still has n’t publically confirmed the project , though .
thing accelerate . Germany ’s Manager Magazinreportsin July that Apple has spoken to BMW about leveraging the EV tech that power its i3 thickset railcar . The Guardian turns updocumentsin August that show , actually , Appleisinterested in developing a ego - driving car and that it ’s reconnoitre for location to test the tech . Cookmeetswith then Fiat - Chrysler foreman Sergio Marchionne .
The New York Timesreportsin September that Apple is still split on whether it should chase a ego - drive car , an galvanizing vehicle or both — an omen for the many pivot man ahead . But the undertaking is up to 600 multitude and Apple is pulling hoi polloi from other teams , like the one form on the Watch , to help move it forward . Apple is alsobuildingout Titan ’s rank with Tesla employees . MuskcallsApple the “ Tesla graveyard ” but says “ the car is the next logical thing to finally pop the question a pregnant origination . ” The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple istargetingan aggressive 2019 ship date .
2016
Momentum starts to stammer . Jony Ivereportedlyexpresses “ displeasure ” with the progress being made in late 2015 and early 2016 , and hiring cools . Zadesky entrust the labor ( but stay at Apple ) and it’sreportedthat the Titan team “ encountered some problems … in laying out clear finish for the labor . ”
In one of the more infamous moments of Apple Car lore , MotorTrendteasesan “ single ” reveal of the Apple Car in April … only to let out that it ’s fundamentally created a blobby mockup of what itcouldlook like and slapped it on the cover of its magazine .
By July , Titan ’s ship particular date fall away to 2021 , and Apple taps Bob Mansfield , one of Steve Jobs ’ top computer hardware executives , totake over .
In September , the Financial TimesreportsApple approached McLaren about a potential acquisition or a strategic investment funds .
But one calendar month later , BloombergreportsApple is issue century of members of the Titan squad as the fellowship swivel away from progress an electric motorcar and toward explicate an sovereign drive system . Executives allegedly give the squad until the end of 2017 to prove out the tech and “ decide on a final counsel . ” Mansfield is reportedly the one who orders the strategy change . A source calls it “ an incredible nonstarter of leading . ”
2017
Apple receives a license from California ’s Department of Motor Vehicles to test its sovereign driving tech using three Lexus SUVsin April .
The party ’s energy into real - world Ab examination occur at a sentence when self - drive car are all the rage . Google has by this point spun out its own autonomous vehicle program , call Waymo . Uber is make up a ego - driving technical school effort after poaching heaps of experts from Carnegie Mellon . ( Those two companies are also , at this tip , already engage in a foul legal struggle about allegedly stolen AV technical school . ) General Motors has acquire Cruise and take up testing its own ego - take cars , and Ford has endow $ 1 billion in a novel AV inauguration call Argo AI .
In June , Tim Cook finallyconfirmspublicly that Apple has been put to work on an automotive project . “ We ’re focusing on autonomous system , ” he tells Bloomberg . “ It ’s a Congress of Racial Equality engineering that we view as very of import . ” He calls it “ the mother of all AI projects . ” But he dodges answer whether Apple will ever make its own electric car . “ We ’re not really order from a product dot of panorama what we will do . ”
orchard apple tree plans to operate an autonomous shuttle that would fetch employees from one building to another on its campus , The New York Timesreportsin August . The company also bulge working on its own lidar sensor . Far - fetched ideas like spheric wheels helped sink the EV effort , the report states , along with “ shifting precedence ” and “ arbitrary or unrealistic deadlines . ”
The team begins growing again . Newversionsof its sensor - topped trial cars are pick up on the road in October .
2018
The ego - driving test fleetexpands , and will quickly treble in sizing . Apple hiresawayGoogle ’s AI headman , John Giannandrea , in April . The projectballoonsto around 5,000 employees .
The big news of the class comes in August , when Applere - hiresDoug Field , who comes back from Tesla to help Mansfield fight Project Titan forward . This sets off afirestormof supposition that Apple will once again endeavor to build its own railroad car from the ground up . Also around this time : Musk suppose he seek but betray to set up a meeting withApple to sell Tesla , as it was struggling to stay put active during the Model 3 production Allium tricoccum .
2019
Apple initiate the yr with another cut and restructuring . More than 200 worker arelet gofrom Project Titan .
Cook tellsshareholdersin March that Apple is “ rolling the die ” on future products that will “ vaunt you off . ” Apple engage Tesla ’s VP of engineering to bolster Titan .
In June , Appleacquiresfaltering AV startup Drive.ai . But the companyscales backits California psychometric test fleet .
2020
The COVID-19 pandemic frame a pause on almost any meaningful report of what Apple is up to with Titan , as workers — especially those in the Bay Area , where the rigid stick - at - home plate measures are go through — go remote .
During this prison term , though , Applestarts upa abbreviated discussion with EV inauguration Canoo about a potential accomplishment or investing . The talks at long last go nowhere .
ApplemovesGiannandrea into a purpose that oversees the work being done on autonomous systems in December , and Mansfield kip down .
And then Reuters drops abombshelljust before Christmas : Apple is once again plan to build a rider vehicle with “ breakthrough shelling engineering . ” But this electric fomite would also be self-governing , unite the two ideas at last . People on the team reportedly believe they can get this new version into production in 2024 .
2021
Korean media beginreportingthat Apple is courting Hyundai Motor Group to build the Apple Car as early on as January , sending the automaker ’s sharessoaring . Hyundai support that they ’re verbalize to Apple but understate them , saying Apple is “ in discussion with a variety of globular automakers . ”
Hyundai ’s sibling automaker Kia starts near likely spouse to build Apple ’s gondola at a factory in Georgia , accordingto The Wall Street Journal . Nikkeireportsin February that Apple was let the cat out of the bag with Nipponese carmaker to ramp up the car . But then The Korea Times report in April that a partnership between LG and Magna is “ very close ” to acquire thecontract .
That same month , Cook once again mentions Apple ’s vehicle project in aninterviewwith Kara Swisher , but keep the focus on autonomy . “ The self-reliance itself is a inwardness applied science , in my view , ” he pronounce . “ If you sort of stair back , the cable car , in a destiny of path , is a robot . An self-reliant car is a robot . And so there ’s rafts of thing you’re able to do with autonomy . And we ’ll see what Apple does . ”
He also admonish that many of Apple ’s ideas “ never see the light of 24-hour interval . ”
Nevertheless , Applestartstalking to China ’s CATL and BYD about source batteries for the Apple Car . A elderly white house economical adviser tellsReutersthat “ Apple is talk about building advanced stamp battery output facilities ” in the U.S.
In June , ApplehiresUlrich Kranz . Kranz was a co - laminitis and CEO of EV inauguration Canoo , but also aid lead the development of BMW ’s i3 EV .
The executive room access maintain revolving , though , as Doug Fieldonce again leaves Apple — this prison term to go work at Ford . Apple turns around andtapsKevin Lynch , one of its top package executives , to run Project Titan .
Right after this , Applereportedlydecides to go it alone and eschew any partnership with another automaker .
Then , yet another pivot . In November , Bloombergreportsthat Apple is “ refocusing the project ” around “ full self - drive capabilities . ” Lynch reportedly pushes to make a automobile that can drive itself completely right out of the gate , with no steering wheel or foot pedal , by 2025 .
Apple reportedly “ believe it has complete much of the core oeuvre on the processor it intends to eventually embark in the first generation of the car . ” To bolster this effort , Apple hires CJ Moore , the former head of Tesla ’s Autopilot division .
But the company reportedly remains part on what the business would be , as it is still debating between personal possession or a fleet model .
2022
CJ Moore forget Apple within six months . The Informationpublishesa report detail some of the fuss Apple has had getting the self - drive tech to process .
Once again , Bloombergreportsanother pivot in December . This time , Apple reportedly scale back ambition after recognise that a to the full autonomous fomite without a direction wheel or foot pedal is not feasible .
The company reportedly pivots to a car that would only be self-governing on highway , and Apple even considers using a “ remote command shopping center ” to aid drivers or control the vehicles during emergencies . The fair game date slip to 2026 .
2023
Apple has steady build itstest fleetback up in California . But news about the project ’s procession dries up . In September , analyst Ming - Chi Kuo exasperatedlymusesthat the “ ontogeny of the Apple Car seems to have mislay all visibility . ” He writes that he doubts Apple can mass - produce the elevator car without an skill of another automaker .
Behind the conniption , Apple ’s control board of film director jump force the troupe ’s leadership about the labor , according toBloomberg .
2024
Apple make a “ make - or - break distributor point ” with the project in January , Bloombergreports , as the release date is pushed to 2028 and the squad reportedly pivots again to an “ EV with more limited features . ”
This new goal came after “ a series of frantic meetings that included Apple ’s control panel , project head Kevin Lynch and Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook , ” accord to the news report . Apple still does n’t have a stately prototype .
One month subsequently , Apple kills Project Titan .
