Apple’s vehicle project, which was canceled this week, could have cost the company up to $10 billion. That goes a new report from the New York Times out of. The project ended because the group could not agree internally on the direction. “Project Titan” has become a “Titanic disaster”. Many Apple employees who worked on the project would have known that it would probably fail.
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The report also mentions other interesting details. In 2014, when the project started, Apple was looking for a new major project. One of the reasons CEO Tim Cook approved it was fears about the exodus of Apple engineers to Tesla. They were looking for a new source of revenue, after all, the vehicle business is a billion-dollar industry. Most recently, it was expected that the Apple car would have cost at least $100,000 – despite the low margin. None of this is in line with Apple’s usual business model.
In the meantime there was also the idea of buying Tesla, but that was then rejected. The car team eventually had more than 2,000 employees until this year. But changes in strategy and management caused confusion. The first concepts from ex-design boss Jony Ive are intended for a minivan like that Fiat Multipla 600 remembered, writes the NYT. Negotiations later took place with car manufacturers such as BMW, Nissan, Mercedes and Korean manufacturers. There were later several rounds of layoffs and Apple Watch manager Kevin Lynch took over. The plans to make the vehicle largely autonomous changed several times, most recently it was assumed that it would be “Level 2+” capable with semi-autonomous driving to equip.
Start-ups react in shock
While the stock market hardly reacted to the news – on Tuesday the shares were initially up, yesterday they only fell by almost 0.7 percent – there are astonished faces in the industry, at least among the e-car start-ups. According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, companies like Xiaomi, which currently make mobile devices and smart household items, are expected to now rethink their own projects.
Xiaomi boss Lei Jun said he was “very shocked,” but said he knew “how hard it is to make cars.” However, it is his “unwavering strategic choice” to continue pursuing the area. Xiaomi has already spent $1.4 billion on the development of its first electric vehicle, which will soon come onto the market. Other manufacturers such as Li Auto said they understand that Apple is moving towards AI because it is the “single entry point for all devices, services, applications and transactions.”
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2024-02-29 09:48:27
#Expensive #fun #money #Apple #sunk #car #project
