Apple Car Is Eventually Given Up Apple’s Humiliation AI Competition Falls Behind

The ‘Apple Car Is Eventually Given Up’ project, which the global automobile and electronics industry had been looking forward to, was suddenly halted. The Apple Car is a product that Apple fans have been looking forward to for the past 10 years, even though Apple has never officially recognized it. Now, self-driving electric cars bearing the Apple brand will no longer be available in the world. The stronghold of Apple’s empire is shaking as it loses its edge in artificial intelligence (AI) to Microsoft (MS) and in smartphones it loses to Samsung Electronics.

According to Bloomberg and major U.S. foreign media outlets on the 27th (local time), Apple announced to employees of the project that it would discontinue Titan, a self-driving electric vehicle development project, through an in-house announcement. A project that had been in preparation for 10 years since 2014 has officially ended. Apple’s senior executives reportedly made this decision after intense meetings in recent weeks.

The Apple Car Project first became known to the world in 2014 when Apple was researching self-driving electric vehicles. At that time, Tesla began selling electric vehicles in earnest, and Google was accelerating the development of self-driving cars, which became Waymo, the current robotaxi. ‘Mobility’ was selected as the project that will take responsibility for Apple’s future after the iPhone.

Naturally, the Apple Car garnered tremendous interest in the market. However, after experiencing frequent strategy changes and the resignation of key executives over the past 10 years, it was eventually discarded.

According to foreign media such as The Information, Apple showed enthusiasm by registering the Apple Car domain in 2016 and appointing key executive Bob Mansfield as senior vice president in charge. However, confusion continued about Apple’s strategy in the self-driving car market. The direction was unclear as to whether to create only software or a new vehicle. In the end, like Google’s Waymo in 2017, sensors and lidar were installed in the vehicle and pilot self-driving cars were operated.

When former Tesla executive Doug Field joined in 2018, the direction was set for Apple to redesign and manufacture the entire vehicle, starting with the semiconductor, just like the current iPhone. They also recruited Ian Goodfellow, an AI researcher from Google and Open AI , to conduct autonomous driving AI research. From the end of 2020, it was reported that negotiations are underway with major electric vehicle manufacturers such as LG Electronics, Hyundai Motors, and Nissan over mass production of the Apple Car. However, no agreement was reached with any automaker.

As the strategy continued to change, but results were not achieved, the department failed to gain confidence from senior executives, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, and key personnel left, such as Doug Field moving to Ford Motor Company in 2021. Even within Apple, the Apple Car department has become infamous as a place you shouldn’t go to. In the end, less than two years after the resignation of key personnel, Apple scrapped the Apple Car project. As Apple closes its mobility business, it is expected to focus its capabilities on AI and spatial computing (Vision Pro).

Apple hired nearly 2,000 employees for the project. Many of these personnel will be transferred to the generative AI development department, but layoffs of personnel in the hardware department are inevitable. Apple’s decision to give up Apple Car was also influenced by the shrinking market for electric vehicles and self-driving cars. Recently, the growth rate of electric vehicle sales in the United States has been slowing, and robotaxi businesses such as General Motors (GM)’s Cruise and Google’s Waymo are also being put on hold.

As news broke that the Apple Car project would be scrapped, Apple’s stock price, which had been falling during the day, turned upward and rose 0.8% compared to the previous day. The withdrawal from the electric vehicle market, which is already a red ocean, was viewed positively. However, with the loss of an important new business called ‘Apple Car’, Apple’s future has become more uncertain.

This is because it is difficult to achieve immediate results in the AI ​​or spatial computing business. Some point out that the growth engine is lower than that of other big tech companies that are growing rapidly in the AI ​​era. Unlike Microsoft, which dominated the AI ​​market by launching ‘ChatGPT’, and Metaplatforms (Facebook), which expanded efficiency by introducing AI technology across advertising products, it is pointed out that Apple is lagging behind in the AI ​​competition.

In fact, market concerns led to a decline in stock prices. In the past month, the U.S. S&P 500 index rose 3.05%, but Apple stock prices fell 4.75% during the same period. Lee Seung-woo, head of the Eugene Investment & Securities Research Center, said, “We do not expect the performance improvement effect due to Vision Pro to be significant this year,” and added, “The Vision Pro effect will only materialize after next year.

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