Apple has laid off dozens of employees and shuttered parts of its secret car project, The New York Times reports. Sources briefed on the move said after expanding the Project Titan team to more than 1,000 employees over the last two years and bringing back highly regarded Apple veteran Bob Mansfield to helm the project after losing VP of Product Design Steve Zadesky, Apple is rethinking its plans for self-driving cars, telling employees the layoffs were part of a “reboot.”
While people familiar with Apple’s plans said the company has a number of fully autonomous vehicles performing limited routes in a closed test envoronment, employees working on the project have struggled to explain what Apple could bring to a self-driving car that companies like Tesla and Google can’t. The technology is likely still years away from mainstream consumer use, and Apple has shifted its focus from designing and producing an complete automobile to creating the basic underlying technology that an autonomous vehicle would use. As usual, Apple declined to comment.
