Goodbye Apple Car, the Mystery of What Could Have Been Will Remain Unanswered
What possibilities could Apple have explored with the simple car?
Ideas, some plausible and others less so, have been trickling out for a decade. For a while, the company was rumored to be developing something small based on BMW’s i3. Then it was said to be a van. Augmented reality, a new type of battery and smart seat belts.
Reports suggested a desire to jump on Tesla and go straight to full self-driving – and it was granted permission to test its technology on California roads. It looked at building charging infrastructure. So insatiable was the craving for automotive news that Apple watchers had begun paying attention to the vehicles purchased by Apple executives to see if there were any signs of their tastes and the likely direction of the project.
My favorite report was that Apple had signed a deal with legendary motoring group McLaren, proving that an Apple car might one day be a true supercar. British, no less. I could just imagine it making its debut in a Bond movie: a tuxedoed Daniel Craig flirting with Siri to open the door to let her out.
Unfortunately, we will never know what could have been. Apple’s decision to scrap its car project, according to a report by Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman, brings everyone’s favorite Silicon Valley rumor to an anti-climactic but sadly predictable end. Apple’s presence on our roads is limited to CarPlay, its in-car software. Gurman wrote that some of the company’s 2,000 employees on the project — called Titan — will be moved to work on artificial intelligence. Others have to apply for other positions; part will be laid off.
In this era of cost-cutting in the tech industry, the Apple Car was a distraction that could no longer be justified, not when the needs of artificial intelligence must be prioritized while Apple was held back. In fact, Apple bothering to make a car was always going to be a tough sell at best. Its high margins on its hardware couldn’t be replicated, and the ordeal of putting the vehicle into production would have scared even Tim Cook, for whom complex supply chains are a specialty. Tesla’s early struggles and costly exits from other car projects like Dyson would always have been on the mind — and the industry’s slowing growth made moving forward even more of a risk.
Indecisiveness about the path the Apple Car should have taken seemed to be the cause of its problems. Management changes were frequent. Big-name ex-Tesla executive Doug Field joined Apple only to leave for Ford three years later. Project Titan was a troubled project – the unkind view is that the company has thrown billions of dollars down the drain due to poor management and lack of a clear vision. Then again, Apple’s stock price rose handsomely every time there was even an iota of news about the car’s existence – and it wouldn’t fall back when those rumors didn’t come true. The details of the project’s cancellation hardly moved the company’s shares when they were announced on Tuesday.
Despite today’s news, I suspect there will always be rumors of an Apple car being worked on somewhere inside Cupertino or some mystery. The hazy details are talked about the same way we speculate about the individuals in Area 51 or the whereabouts of Lord Lucan. But all expectations that something would happen before the end of this decade have now been dashed. Apple Car has unfortunately been cancelled.
Dave Lee is a US technology columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He was previously a correspondent for the Financial Times and BBC News.
