The recently surfaced reports suggest that Apple has given up its plans for designing a self-driving car. Project Titan by the tech giant has apparently lost steam and the plans for the design and development of a self-driving car have been scrapped.
The rumors circulating the tech circles allude that Apple will no longer pursue its original plans for the development of a self-driving car; rather the American multinational intends to tune the autonomous vehicles software. In wake of these reports, hundreds of employees engaged with the Project Titan have been pulled off their assignments or been let go.
Some unnamed sources have declared the Apple Car project was ‘an incredible failure of leadership.’ Steve Zadesky, the Ford engineer who used to head Project Titan, left the board earlier in 2016. He was replaced in April by Bob Mansfield, a manager who worked on the development of the iPad.
A month after his appointment, Mansfield proclaimed that Apple had decided to modify its strategy whereby the company will now focus on the development of the self-driving cars software. Following the announcement, several engineers quit Project Titan while a few other employees were let go.
A few speculations imply that Apple also faced supply chain problems. The company is well-known for holding exclusive rights for the smartphone parts. However, the same strategy could not be followed for designing an autonomous car. Eric Paul Dennis, an analyst at the Center for Automotive Research, commented on the decision made by Apple:
“When they started digging into the details of what that would entail it likely became an intractable problem.”
Currently, the Project Titan team, including the engineers and the regulators, are developing ‘autonomous programs, vision sensors, and simulators for testing the platform in real-world environments.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZzKMbtDL40
