No Vision, No iCar: Apple Dissolves Car Team. What Now?

Apple kept things exciting for ten years, only to disappoint us today. For so long, the worst-kept secret in Silicon Valley was Apple’s Titan project, in which an electric car, better known as the iCar, was being developed. Again and again there were rumors about a lack of vision and strategy, about layoffs and new hires, without Apple ever wanting to announce any details. A whole series of German automotive engineers are also said to have been involved in the project for a while, and there have also been repeated rumors of negotiations with prominent car manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Hyundai. Just a month ago, it was reported that Apple was targeting 2028 for the launch of the iCar.

However, Bloomberg has now exclusively reported that the project members at Apple have been instructed by management to discontinue the project. Some employees are to be reassigned to the AI teams, while others are to be made redundant.

What could the reasons be, what will happen next and what are the implications for Apple?

Reasons

First of all, it was repeatedly rumored that Apple had no clear vision or strategy for an iCar. Many employees who had been headhunted by car manufacturers often left Apple after just a few months.

This could have something to do with the fact that Tim Cook is not a visionary at the top of Apple, but a very good manager who is very talented in production and the supply chain. But not a Steve Jobs. On the other hand, although the design team around Jony Ive had put together a group with an affinity for and interest in automobiles, it fell apart after Jony Ive’s departure from Apple. As a result, there seemed to have been no leadership that was on an equal footing with Tim Cook.

On the other hand, the centralized hierarchy at Apple simply did not seem to have the cognitive capacity to drive the project forward with the necessary drive. This has already been seen in the construction of the Apple Park headquarters, where the team was so busy that there was hardly any time to work on new products. Under Tim Cook’s leadership, the only new products launched since 2011 have been the iWatch, which was started under Jobs, and now the Apple Vision Pro virtual reality glasses.

Furthermore, with generative AI suddenly on everyone’s lips thanks to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a real race for AI dominance has broken out. And this may have forced Apple to focus and throw all its resources into the development of AI and large language models, as well as its own AI chips. Because not even 8 kilometers from Apple’s headquarters, a new giant and competitor has emerged almost out of nowhere: Nvidia. This company now supplies 90 percent of all AI chips and Apple cannot afford to be left behind.

Now what?

This news does not mean that Apple is abandoning its automotive plans altogether. The Californian Disengagement Report 2023 revealed that Apple more than tripled its development activities in autonomous driving last year. The figure rose from 200,154 kilometers in 2022 to 724,390 kilometers. Is Apple now focusing on autonomous driving and developing a kind of “autonomous driving in a box” to offer to other manufacturers? Can this technology also be grafted onto other mobile devices such as robots?

There is a need for action, as there is a risk that car manufacturers will stop integrating Apple Car Play and prefer to use their own software on their vehicles instead. General Motors has already announced such a move.

The aforementioned AI, which we currently see primarily as voice bots, is in the process of being integrated into other software systems as autonomous AI or AI assistants and on physical devices such as smartphones, cars, robots and machines. We are facing a Cambrian explosion of AI-controlled robots and machines that are being created at breathtaking speed. I have written about this in detail in this latest book: Kreative Intelligenz

As a hardware manufacturer, Apple itself cannot afford to miss out on such a trend, as these AI-integrated devices threaten its own business model. After all, this directly threatens Apple’s most successful product, the iPhone.

Does this mean that Apple’s decision to discontinue Project Titan will instead result in the purchase of a car manufacturer? There are a number of companies that would be suitable. Both Lucid Motors and Rivian are facing financial challenges and could fit into the Apple philosophy. Or would it be better to buy Mercedes-Benz or Canoo? Apple could easily snatch up all these companies financially, and there would be well-established production facilities. Cultural differences would probably be the challenge.

One thing is clear: the next steps that Apple has to take will lead to some shifts in the affected industries. Once again, Apple is not the pioneer here, but a follower. The company must endeavor to remain a fast follower, because otherwise it could very quickly no longer act from a position of strength, but be forced to react. And above all, this shows that Apple needs a visionary and must also slowly build up a successor to Tim Cook.

This article was also published in German.

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