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Apple this week filed a required notice with the state of California, confirming plans to permanently lay off more than 600 employees. Under California law, employers must give employees and state representatives a 60-day notice before a mass layoff event. The employees listed are located in several Apple-occupied buildings around Santa Clara, California, which is close to Apple's Cupertino headquarters. Several of these locations were rumored to be associated with Apple Car development in the past, so it is likely that these layoffs are related to Apple's decision to stop work on the car project. Apple officially ended development on the Apple Car in March. Approximately 2,000 employees working on the Apple Car were told that the project was winding down at that time, and Apple began the process of moving some of them to work on artificial intelligence under John Giannandrea and in other relevant departments. Other employees were given 90 days to apply for open positions within the company, but Apple hired hardware engineers and car designers while working on the Apple Car, and these employees may not have had skills applicable to other projects. Apple also recently ended development on in-house microLED displays, so some of the layoffs might also be related to the decision to discontinue that work. This article, "Apple Lays Off 600+ Employees After Canceling Car Project" first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums View the full article

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Drake Bennett today published an in-depth report examining Apple's decade-long attempt at creating an electric vehicle. The project was reportedly canceled last week after many challenges and setbacks. Apple vice president Kevin Lynch, who oversaw the electric vehicle project in its later years The report described a 2020 prototype of Apple's electric vehicle:The prototype, a white minivan with rounded sides, an all-glass roof, sliding doors and whitewall tires, was designed to comfortably seat four people and inspired by the classic flower-power Volkswagen microbus. The design was referred to within Apple, not always affectionately, as the Bread Loaf. The plan was for the vehicle to hit the market some five years later with a giant TV screen, a powerful audio system and windows that adjusted their own tint. The cabin would have club seating like a private plane, and passengers would be able to turn some of the seats into recliners and footrests.Apple once considered acquiring Tesla to bolster its efforts, the report said:But before sketching out its own designs, Apple considered acquiring Tesla. At that point the electric-car maker's success was far from assured, and its value was less than $30 billion, or a 20th of what it is today. Adrian Perica, Apple's head of corporate development, held a series of meetings with Elon Musk. But Cook, who'd succeeded Jobs three years earlier, shut the deal down while negotiations were still at an early stage.Apple also considered partnering with or acquiring Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Ford, Volkswagen, McLaren, and other automakers, according to the report:Talks with Mercedes-Benz progressed further. For a few months, Apple and the German automaker actively worked on a partnership similar to the Tesla idea, but with a twist. Mercedes would manufacture Apple's vehicle, while it would also sell its own cars with Apple's self-driving platform and user interface. Apple eventually pulled out, in part because the early work gave its executives confidence they could build a car on their own, people involved in the failed deal say.The project was ultimately a "failure" due to indecision, the report said:But Apple never got close to realizing its original vision, or any of its subsequent ones. It didn't get as far as testing a full-scale prototype on public roads. That it didn't is partly thanks to the enormous technical difficulty of its self-driving goals, as well as the punishing economics of the automaking business. The project was also a failure, at the highest levels of the company, to settle on one thing and do it.The report detailed how Apple's COO Jeff Williams and Apple Car chief Kevin Lynch broke the news of the project's cancellation to employees:The meeting lasted about 12 minutes. Both men thanked the staffers for their work and got straight to the reorg and layoffs. Some employees would immediately get shifted to Apple's AI division, and some would move over to software engineering. A chunk of the team, though, was immediately without a job. Hardware engineers would have the opportunity to apply for roles in other groups, but there aren't spots for everyone. Other employees, such as the hundreds of car-specific engineers, test track technicians, self-driving car testers and automotive safety experts, received emails with their severance packages. As for the Arizona track, Apple is already working to sell it.Other notable details mentioned in the report include that Steve Jobs was apparently first to raise the idea of Apple building a vehicle, and that some Apple employees received a tour of Jay Leno's garage and his car collection early on. Bloomberg's full report is a worthwhile read for those interested in learning more about Apple's vehicle project, and we also shared our own recap last week.Related Roundup: Apple CarTag: Mark GurmanRelated Forum: Apple, Inc and Tech Industry This article, "Apple Car's Decade of Development and 'Failure' Detailed in New Report" first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums View the full article

Apple has canceled all plans to release an autonomous, electric vehicle, reports Bloomberg. Apple has been working on an Apple Car for more than a decade and invested millions of dollars into development before deciding it was not a viable project. Apple's Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams today told approximately 2,000 employees working on the ‌Apple Car‌ that the project was canceled, and the information reportedly came as a surprise. Work on the ‌Apple Car‌ is winding down and many of the people that were working on the car will move to Apple's artificial intelligence division to work on generative AI under AI chief John Giannandrea. There are a number of hardware engineers and car designers that were on the ‌Apple Car‌ team, and there will be layoffs. Some of the employees may be able to shift to other divisions within the company. Earlier this year, there were rumors that the ‌Apple Car‌ project had been scaled back, with Apple abandoning plans for a full driverless car with autonomous capabilities. Apple shifted focus to an electric vehicle with fewer self-driving features, and the vehicle would have been on par with Tesla's technology. Apple was aiming to release the car sometime around 2026, but now those plans have been shelved completely. News of the ‌Apple Car‌ first surfaced in 2014, and since then, the project has been rife with problems. The focus of the work has changed and evolved multiple times, and Apple has had several leadership changes due to internal strife. Apple Watch chief Kevin Lynch took over the project in 2021, and he worked to scale down the project while still putting out a viable car. According to Bloomberg, senior Apple executives made the decision to wind down the ‌Apple Car‌ project in recent weeks. This article, "Apple Cancels Electric Car Project" first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums View the full article