According to documents filed with the state of California, Apple would have fired more than 600 workers when canceling its electric car project. The technology giant terminates Project Titan after a decade of development without having created a vehicle to launch on the market.
After a decade in the development phase, it seems that the Apple car will finally not arrive. Last month, the first reports that the tech giant had stopped funding the iCar, known internally as Project Titan, came to light. A few days later we learned that Apple had finally canceled its electric car project.
It is said that the company had started working on this project in 2014 with the aim of introducing what would have been its first electric car in a market outside the one in which Apple usually operates. However, things do not seem to have gone as planned, and this has led to the decision to cancel the project and, consequently, the first layoffs.
More than 600 Apple employees lose their jobs after the cancellation of the electric car project
As a result of canceling its electric car project, Apple has just carried out its first large wave of layoffs since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020. The technology company has already laid off 614 employees, according to documents provided to the state of California.
Documents filed with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) program suggest that the company is definitively ending the Apple car project. While it was understood that the company would attempt to move most employees to other projects, some layoffs were also confirmed.
The documents cited do not specify the functions of the employees who have been laid off by Apple, but they are classified by location. Bloomberg reports that at least 371 workers were fired from Apple's Santa Clara office, one of the company's headquarters widely known as the nerve center of Project Titan.
Dozens of other Apple employees were reportedly fired from other peripheral offices also believed to be involved in the electric car development project.
Meanwhile, at least 87 of the employees were working in a secret facility associated with a project to allow Apple to manufacture its own device displays. That project was shut down at the end of March, as a result of engineering and cost issues.
Started in 2014, the cancellation of Project Titan has not caught many by surprise, which is why some have played with its name to ironically call it 'Project Titanic'.
Throughout its development, the goals to be achieved with the car changed from a simple Tesla competitor to a rival to Google's autonomous car, whose design was inspired by the Fiat Multiplá of the 1950s.
Amid changes in leadership and a lack of clear objectives, the project faced significant challenges in trying to gain momentum and reach the goal.
Without the full support of Apple's senior executives, the project ultimately failed, resulting in its demise and more than 600 employees losing their jobs. The technology company has reportedly changed its focus towards the development of Artificial Intelligence.