'Apple Car' team dissolved & 2025 launch may be in doubt says Ming-Chi Kuo
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports that the project team behind pre-production of the Apple Car has been dissolved, and without rapid reworking, the car will not make its expected 2025 launch.
Despite recent reports that Apple was likely to announce a partnership to mass produce an "Apple Car" in 2025, Ming-Chi Kuo says the date is in question. According to the analyst, there is currently no project team in place at Apple.
Kuo offers no further details, so it's not known how long the team has been disbanded, nor at what stage they were. However, in December 2021, it was reported that three "Apple Car" engineers had left for other companies.
Also in September 2021, Apple Watch executive Kevin Lynch was said to have been reassigned to manage the "Apple Car" team. In 2020, it was reported that Apple's AI and Siri head, John Giannandrea, was overseeing development.
It's conceivable that Apple's design work and plans could even have been completed. If that was the case, however, at least some members of a team would be expected to stay through the manufacturing process.
The team behind what's reportedly known internally as "Project Titan," have reportedly been disbanded and/or reorganized before. In 2016, Apple placed a hiring freeze on the team following unspecified executives being unhappy with progress.
Read on AppleInsider
Despite recent reports that Apple was likely to announce a partnership to mass produce an "Apple Car" in 2025, Ming-Chi Kuo says the date is in question. According to the analyst, there is currently no project team in place at Apple.
The Apple Car project team has been dissolved for some time. The reorganization within the next three to six months is necessary to achieve the goal of mass production by 2025.
-- (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo)
Kuo offers no further details, so it's not known how long the team has been disbanded, nor at what stage they were. However, in December 2021, it was reported that three "Apple Car" engineers had left for other companies.
Also in September 2021, Apple Watch executive Kevin Lynch was said to have been reassigned to manage the "Apple Car" team. In 2020, it was reported that Apple's AI and Siri head, John Giannandrea, was overseeing development.
It's conceivable that Apple's design work and plans could even have been completed. If that was the case, however, at least some members of a team would be expected to stay through the manufacturing process.
The team behind what's reportedly known internally as "Project Titan," have reportedly been disbanded and/or reorganized before. In 2016, Apple placed a hiring freeze on the team following unspecified executives being unhappy with progress.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Apple definitely wants to be in its customers' cars. But I always thought their ambitions lay solely in CarPlay with a future version of CarPlay reaching further into the car - e.g. providing self-driving capabilities, etc. Building your own cars is not only highly capital intensive, it's also not all that lucrative - at least not compared to the 30+% margins Apple gets from its iDevices and 70+% on its services. Were any of the rumors that Apple was approaching car manufacturers to build a car from them ever substantiated? I mean, I have no doubt Apple did talk to various manufacturers about such a partnership, but that could have just been to inform themselves what the margins, in fact, would be.
Year 2042: Apple rumoured to start working on car again with 2046 launch date.
Year 2052: Apple Car team dissolved after facing manufacturing challenges.
...
I’ve been skeptical all along that Apple could pull this off. News of Apple having talks with existing auto manufacturers got my hopes up slightly. But it bears asking repeatedly, what can Apple offer that no one else can? Are they working on some mind blowing new technology integration solution that takes human factors and UI to a new level?
Tesla’s AI is monstrously superior to anything else out there and they’ve got hundreds of millions of miles of road data to input into that AI. You can’t do it all with modeling and simulation. Tesla along with Panasonic have done their homework on battery technology. Tesla has refined the electric motor to new levels of performance. Tesla autos are among the safest in the industry.
It would have been really cool to see the industrial design of an Apple car. I have no doubt that Apple could’ve done a better job than anyone else in design, ergonomics, and UI. But cool design is not enough. I’m glad Apple spent the time investigating the possibility of an Apple car. They probably learned a lot while doing it. But it may be time to sunset this project. Just get me my Mac Studio. We’ll still love you Apple.
Okay, that’s my current conspiracy theory on this subject. /s
I am reading it to mean the team was dissolved and Apple moved to reorganize within the next months so that they can achieve production by 2025.
please, Apple needs to keep pushing technology forward and they can do a lot with the Car. Your reply reminds me of the articles praising blackberry before the iPhone.
They both had screens, keyboards, batteries, antenna etc. Everything necessary to get the work of a phone (and more) done.
The secret was in software and apps that added new functionality which actually turned it into less of a phone and more of a CE computer.
How can that transfer to a autonomous car setting where most of the computing work is not really going to be client facing? It's going to be mainly back end stuff (mobile data centre, 'sensing' capabilities, AI, communicating with road infrastructure etc) and where there will be a host of competitors moving fast and already deploying solutions.
I am very interested in what Lucid, Rivian, and the other new BEV entrants have to offer. But until they get through their own version of "production hell" it's all talk and no action. The ICE makers of old are still acting like dinosaurs. I've been watching them for four decades. It's the same-ol'-same-old.