After nearly a decade of secret development, Apple has given up on plans to design and build its own autonomous vehicle, instead shifting resources to artificial intelligence initiatives.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who cited unnamed Apple insiders, around 2,000 employees working on the self-driving car project known as Project Titan were informed of the shutdown by COO Jeff Williams and AI chief John Giannandrea. Many of those engineers will reportedly move to Apple’s AI division.
The pivot demonstrates that AI and generative models are top priorities under CEO Tim Cook. Last summer it was revealed Apple is developing its own ChatGPT competitor, AppleGPT.
In November, Cook discussed needing “guardrails” on AI safety with musician Dua Lipa. Earlier this month, Apple open-sourced an AI image editing model. Competitors like Google, Amazon and Microsoft are also heavily investing in AI.
Apple faces an uphill battle in the red-hot AI space. Software chief Craig Federighi has reportedly told teams to prepare new AI features across products over the next year, including advancing Siri. That could mean more AI capabilities unveiled at Apple’s developer conference in June. One tangible push is an AI coding assistant for Apple’s Xcode currently in late testing.
The end of the self-driving car project further shows Apple shifting its long-term focus to software and services versus hardware. The company will likely rely on partnerships with automakers, instead of designing a car itself.
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