In February this year, we learned that after more than a decade of work, Project Titan – the Apple Car effort was officially canceled. Naturally, details have been sparse around the topic as it was a secret project. But today an interesting detail has surfaced about how Apple is dismantling the project.
There were reportedly more than 2,000 employees working on Apple Car before executives decided early this year that it was time to pull the plug.
Then spotted by my colleague Filipe in April, Apple executed a round of layoffs that confirmed Apple Car team members losing their jobs or being reassigned.
Outside of reports based on intel from inside sources, not much was known about Project Titan which saw many challenges.
Apple’s public autonomous vehicle testing
However, the only outward-facing sign of the Apple Car program was the company’s autonomous vehicles and testers in California which had to be publicly registered and tested in public.
At different times over the last decade, Apple had as many as 200+ employees registered to drive its autonomous test vehicles.
And as of January 2024, Apple had a fleet of 68 autonomous test vehicles with 162 drivers.
What does dismantling the Apple Car look like?
While Apple has already laid off most of its Apple Car staff and of course done things like shutting down work spaces, destroying proprietary R&D property, etc., an interesting detail has surfaced about its autonomous driving team and fleet.
Shared by macReports this morning, Apple made a change to its California DMV permit – but not what you might expect.
Instead of shutting it down and canceling its permit and registered drivers – Apple has kept 15 employees (reduced from 172) who can drive the autonomous vehicles and kept the whole fleet of 68 registered to operate in California.
That permit is valid until April 30, 2025, meaning it may take another year for Apple to fully shut down the project.
What’s going on with the Apple autonomous vehicles?
It’s unclear why Apple is keeping its full fleet registered to operate along with over a dozen employees to drive the vehicles, but here are some possibilities:
- Maybe Apple is looking to sell some of the intellectual property it developed and needs to be able to show off the vehicle tech in real demos on the road to potential buyers
- Maybe Apple wants more time to archive work from Project Titan to save for the future
- Maybe Apple needs more time to shut down the autonomous vehicle team and the remaining 15 employees are part of handling it
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Top image of next-gen CarPlay via Apple
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