November 23, 2024

Apple Drastically Scales Back Car Plans, Refocuses on Autonomous Driving System

Posted October 17, 2016 at 2:23pm by iClarified · 11379 views
Apple has drastically scaled back its car plans resulting in hundreds of job cuts and a new direction for the project that doesn't involve building an actual vehicle, reports Bloomberg.

Hundreds of employees that were on the Project Titan car team have be reassigned, let go, or left over recent months. New leadership has refocused the project on creating an autonomous driving system that gives Apple the ability to partner with an existing car manufacturer or returning to designing its own vehicle in the future.

Apple has been able to keep the team numbers around 1,000 people by hiring employees to help with the new focus. Executives have reportedly given the team until late next year to prove the viability of the autonomous driving system and decide on a final direction for the project.

The shift reportedly started earlier this year.

Mansfield took the stage in a Silicon Valley auditorium packed with hundreds of Titan employees to announce the strategy shift, according to people who attended the meeting. Mansfield explained that he had examined the project and determined that Apple should move from building an outright competitor to Tesla Motors Inc. to an underlying self-driving platform.

More details at the link below...

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