One of the major news of the past few days is the final termination of the Titan project, behind which the company's autonomous electric car, which had been in development for years, was hidden Apple. Over the past few years, there have been various more or less guaranteed reports of when Apple Car konewill see the light of day and what it will look like. ProHowever, the project was apparently finally canceled, and Mark Gurman and Drake Bennett from the agency Bloomberg published a detailed report mapping the Cupertino company's decade and its development Apple Car.
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The report describes, among other things, a prototype electric vehicle from Applu from 2020. At that time it was supposed to be about "white minia van with rounded sides, an all-glass roof, sliding doors and white tires designed to comfortably accommodate four people". It was to draw inspiration from the look of Volkswagen's iconic "hippie" minibus. The car was planned to hit the market about five years later and was to be equipped with a giant display, a powerful audiosystem and windows that adjusted their own tint. The cabin was to have club seats like on a private jet, and passengers were to have the option of turning some seats into loungers and footrests.
Tesla, Mercedes and McLaren
The report also mentions how Apple once flirted with the idea of acquiring Tesla. "At the time, the electric car manufacturer's success was far from certain and its value was less than $30 billion, a twentieth of today's value. Adrian Perica, the company's head of corporate development Apple, held a series of meetings with Elonem Musk. Cook, who had succeeded Jobs three years earlier, however, the deal fell through while negotiations were still in the early stages," it says in the message. But according to the report Apple it has also considered partnering with or acquiring Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Ford, Volkswagen, McLaren and other automakers. For example, negotiations with Mercedes, which was to produce cars for Apple while also selling its own cars with the company's self-driving car platform and user interface Apple. Apple sononec stepped down, in part because the initial work gave his managers confidence that they could build the car themselves, according to people involved in the failed deal.
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Targets too big
Apple However, it never came close to realizing its original vision or any of its subsequent ones. It didn't even get to test a full-fledged prototype on public roads. But there are many more reasons for the failure of the entire project. There was probably never a clear consensus on fundamental things in the company, everything was constantly changing and the vision of the final result was not only magnificent, but above all very nestThe few goals that the management is focusing ononec agreed, was very demanding in terms of technical implementation, and while the development itself Apple Car He only progressed in very small steps, the competition in the field was already long ahead.
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Goodbye and scarf
Company report Bloomberg It also describes how the job announcement actually took place.ancabout the project's termination. The entire meeting, initiated by Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams and Chief Apple Car Kevin Lynch, reportedly lasted about 12 minutes. Both men thanked the employeesancfor their work and went straight to reorganization and layoffs. Some employeesancand were immediately transferred to the company's artificial intelligence division Apple, while others moved to the software engineering section.
Hardware engineers had the opportunity to apply for positions in other groups, but the positions are not for everyone. Other employeesanci, for example, hundreds of automotive engineers, test track technicians, self-driving car testers and automotive safety experts received emails detailing the termination and severance packages. As for the Arizona track, Apple is already working on selling it.
