According to reports on February 28, according to foreign media reports, internal sources were quoted that Apple has put shelves and canceled all development plans for autonomous driving electric vehicles.It has been launched for more than ten years and invested billions of dollars during the period, but finally decided that this was not a feasible project.

People familiar with the matter said that Apple disclosed the above -mentioned decision to internal employees on Tuesday, local time in the United States, which shocked nearly 2,000 employees participating in the project.It is reported that Jeff Williams, the chief operating officer of Apple, and vice president responsible for the projectKevin Linqi(Kevin Lynch) made this difficult choice together.

These two executives informed employees that the project will gradually reduce the scale, and many members of the automobile team (that is, special project team, SPG for short) will be transferred to the artificial intelligence department, and executives John Zhanan Deria (John Giannandrea)lead.These employees will focus on promoting generation artificial intelligence projects, which has become an increasingly important strategic focus of Apple.

The Apple Automobile team also includes hundreds of hardware engineers and car designers, which may also face the situation of re -distribution to other Apple teams.Apple will make layoffs, but the specific number of layoffs has not been clear.Apple refused to comment on the news.

Market investors welcomed Apple's decision, and Apple's stock price rose after the report.When the New York stock market closed, Apple's stock price rose about 1%to $ 182.63 per share.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk also posted on the social media website X, congratulating Apple's decision.He posted a post with a tribute emoji and a cigarette.

The decision to reduce the car construction project of Apple is undoubtedly a major choice, which means that it ended the billions of dollars, called the "Titan Plan" (Project titan) The plan, the plan is designed to promote Apple into a new industry.Since around 2014, this technology giant has started to develop cars to create a self -driving electric vehicle with luxury cars interior and voice navigation functions.

Since its launch, Apple Electric Vehicle Project has faced many difficulties, and team leaders and strategies have changed frequently.After Ford Motor's former high -pipeline Doug Field left, Lynch and Williams took over the business. However, they eventually failed to reverse the fate of the project.

There are still several years before the production of Apple Motors. During the period, the company has explored countless design plans and faces a huge challenge to develop autonomous driving technology.Since 2017, Apple facilitates the road test with the Lexus SUV, and has tested dozens of cars throughout the United States.In addition, Apple secretly tested some components on the Phoenix Circuit that had belonged to Chrysler.

However, changes in the market have brought greater pressure on Apple.With the cooling of the electric vehicle market, the enthusiasm of mainstream buyers has gradually weakened the enthusiasm of pure electric vehicles, and sales growth has lost motivation.For example, traditional car manufacturers such as GM and Ford have shifted to the production of hybrid vehicles after facing the downturn of pure electric vehicles and production bottlenecks.The entire industry has greatly reduced the price, production goals and profit expectations of pure electric vehicles.

Even the pioneer of the US Electric Vehicle Revolution was not spared, and the company warned that the expansion speed this year will be "significantly slowed down."According to UBS, the growth rate of US electric vehicles will decrease from 47%in 2023 to 11%this year.

According to people familiar with the matter, Apple's management has made this difficult decision in recent weeks.Just a month ago, there were also media reports that the project had reached the edge of life and death.The latest plan discussed internally is to delay the release of the car to 2028 and reduce the technical specifications of autonomous driving from L2+.The project brings together the elites from the entire automotive industry, including designers of well -known brands such as Aston Martin, Lamborghini, BMW and Porsche.

With the end of the project, Lynch will report to Zhannan Deria.Earlier, he has been reporting to Williams, and the latter is also responsible for the software engineering of Apple Watch.

In the later stages of the project, Apple has imagined to control the pricing of this car about $ 100,000.However, the company's internal executives have reserved opinions on this, fearing that such pricing strategies will weaken the consistent high profit margin of Apple products.In addition, the company's board of directors also expressed concerns about continuous investment in hundreds of millions of dollars per year in a project with unknown prospects.

In addition to cars, Apple continues to invest in other fields.In the past five years, the company has invested as high as US $ 113 billion in R & D, with an average annual growth rate of about 16%.In June 2023, Apple launched its first hybrid reality header Vision Pro, which is the first new product of the company's launch of the company in the past ten years.

Apple has also abandoned multiple projects, including TV production plans that shelved around 2015.However, the termination of the electric vehicle project is particularly noticeable, not only because it lasted for ten years, but also because of the large number of employees involved and the amount of funds consumed.

In the automotive field, Apple's biggest achievement is its CarPlay software, which allows drivers to use iPhone's maps and Siri functions in the car.Apple is committed to upgrading CarPlay in order to better integrate with the control of the vehicle and the entertainment system.By establishing a cooperative relationship with automobile manufacturers, rather than direct competition, Apple can promote the development of this software and is expected to promote it to more models.

*Disclaimer: The news of this article is derived from the global electronic market. The news is only for communication and learning without official confirmation.