Death of Titan: 5 reasons why Apple killed its self-driving EV dream

After spending a decade and $10 billion on its ambitious electric vehicle project, Apple has decided to call it off. While the engineers will reportedly be absorbed into the artificial intelligence (AI) projects, the rest of the 2,000-odd employees have been told to apply for different roles within the company.

So, what went wrong for the Apple EV, internally code-named “Titan”? Here are some reasons.

1. Lack of clear vision

Many Apple employees working on the project called it the “Titanic disaster”, says a New York Times report. So, why did they think it was likely to fail?

First, those who led the project over the years had differing views on what the car should be like. Four different leaders took charge of the project and altered the plans every time, hiring and firing people along the way.

Initially, the idea was to develop an EV that could take on Tesla. But by the time Apple launched the project in 2014, the idea of a self-driving car had taken the US market by storm. Google was already testing prototypes on the roads and everyone thought autonomous vehicles would be the next big thing in the near future.

Apple jumped on the bandwagon and the project was upgraded into a self-driving car to rival Google’s Waymo. However, by the time the tech giant decided to pull the plug on Titan, the car was back to its earlier avatar as an EV with driving-assistance features like Tesla. In between, the focus of the team shifted from building a car to building self-driving car software.

2. Unfeasibility of the project

“Prototypes are easy, volume production is hard, positive cash flow is excruciating,” reads a 2021 tweet by Tesla CEO Elon Musk on EVs. It perfectly summed up what Apple realised a few years later.

Apple initially planned to launch the car in 2024. But in 2022, it announced that it had postponed the launch date of the self-driving to 2026. The reason, according to a Bloomberg report, was that Apple had finally realised that its ambitious idea a fully autonomous vehicle, without a steering wheel or pedals, was simply not feasible with the existing technology. The car was supposed to be controlled using Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri.

Therefore, Apple went back to the original idea of a Tesla-like system, but by then, Tesla was already dominating the market. General Motors and Ford had come up with cars with drive-assist features as well. But then, Apple realised that even if the car ever made it to the market, it would cost at least $100,000, that too with razor-thin profit.

3. Lack of partnerships

Apple showed the way to a lot of players in the phone tech industry. However, they have all formed partnerships for their tech-car schemes. Sony joined hands with Honda, Huawei with Chery Automobile, and Xiaomi with state-owned automaker BAIC Group, among others.

Over the past decade, there have been several rumours of Apple getting into partnerships with manufacturers, including Magna International, LG, Didi Chuxing, and Canoo. In 2021, Hyundai even confirmed that it was in talks to develop a car with Apple. However, none of these materialised.

4. Slump in EV market

Even as Apple struggled with its car, the hype around the autonomous vehicle died down, with engineering and regulatory challenges coming to the fore.

With borrowing costs being high, the demand for EVs has slowed. Tesla warned in January that its sales growth would be weaker in2024 compared to last year. US giants Ford and General Motors have also shelved their plans to expand EV production.

Tesla, facing tough competition from Chinese rivals such as BYD, has also been slashing prices in prime markets around the world, including Europe and China, by up to 25 per cent.

Also, the lack of enough charging infrastructure has been reportedly pushing buyers to opt for hybrid vehicles rather than all-electric ones.

5. AI, the new big thing

At the beginning of this year, Apple decided that working on generative AI would be a better use of the company’s resources. Even those who worked on the project have appreciated the decision.

Apple, which recently launched the Vision Pro virtual reality headset, has realised that the market for AI in consumer electronics is rising sharply.

According to reports, generative AI smartphones are expected to exceed 100 million units in 2024. Some suggest that number could go up to more than 500 million by 2027.

Many believe the research that went into the self-driving car will be invaluable for Apple in developing other technologies in its own niche.