Apple is abandoning its electric car project

Apple has canceled its plans to release an electric car with self-driving capabilities, a secret product that has been in the works for almost a decade.

The company told employees at an internal meeting Tuesday that it had scrapped the project and that members of the group would be moved to different roles, including in its artificial intelligence division, according to a person briefed on the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity asked because the announcement was not public.

As part of the restructuring, Kevin Lynch, a business executive involved in the car project, will report to John Giannandrea, head of the company’s artificial intelligence division, the person said.

Apple declined to comment. The news that Apple is ending its car plan was previously reported by Bloomberg.

Although Apple had not unveiled its car to consumers, the product was one of Silicon Valley’s worst-kept secrets for years because it was tested on public roads. The cancellation is a rare move by Apple, which typically does not shelve such public and high-profile projects.

The company has struggled to find new growth opportunities in recent years as the all-important iPhone has saturated the market and people are upgrading their phones less often than they used to.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has done just that publicly hinted at that Apple was interested in entering the automotive space. The company has also been testing hundreds of vehicles equipped with autonomous driving technology in public for years. The car, internally codenamed ‘Titan’ and project 172, was a challenging product to develop, as parts of the division were closed, plans were scrapped and restarted, and dozens of employees were laid off along the way.

The car, on which Apple spent billions of dollars on research, was intended as a competitor to Tesla’s electric vehicles, which have autonomous driving functions.

The product was important to Mr. Cook’s legacy because it would have countered the perception that Apple had lost its ability to innovate and come up with the next big thing. Under Mr. Cook’s leadership, the company has introduced a small number of new hardware products, including the Apple Watch, which is now the market leader in smart watches; the HomePod smart speaker, which flopped; and the Vision Pro, the $3,500 glasses released this month to rival Meta’s virtual reality headsets.

The company has invested heavily in the development of new technologies. Over the past five years, the country has spent $113 billion on research and development.