After roughly a decade, multiple leadership changes and a regular spot in Apple rumor reports, the Apple Car project, internally known as Project Titan, could well be dead. A new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says Apple has officially canceled the car, breaking the news to nearly 2,000 employees working on it. Apple will reportedly move "many employees working on the car" to the company's artificial intelligence division where they will focus on generative AI projects, which Apple is expected to share more about later this year. Leaks over the years revealed the company's ambitions to expand into a brand-new product category. At the beginning of the project in 2014, Apple wanted to build a fully self-driving car without pedals or a steering wheel, with a remote command center ready to take over for a driver.

An engineer has created concept images of what the upcoming Apple Car could look like when it is finally released. Artistic renderings have been created by Devanga Borah, a mechanical engineer at Tezpur University in India, of an autonomous and fully electric vehicle. Like something out of a dystopian sci-fi film, the renderings depict a bizarre white car consisting of a spherical pod that swivels around 360-degrees on four wheels. The pod has a circular entrance that flings open like a couple of saloon doors to reveal'a cocoon-like cockpit' with two seats. Reminiscent of Apple's eMac computer from 2002, the vehicle is painted in glossy white and features the Apple logo between the front and back sets of wheels.

Apple Inc. is pushing to accelerate development of its electric car and is refocusing the project around full self-driving capabilities, according to people familiar with the matter, aiming to solve a technical challenge that has bedeviled the auto industry. For the past several years, Apple's car team had explored two simultaneous paths: creating a model with limited self-driving capabilities focused on steering and acceleration -- similar to most current cars from Tesla Inc. -- or a version with full self-driving ability that doesn't require human intervention. Under the effort's new leader -- Apple Watch software executive Kevin Lynch -- engineers are now concentrating on the second option. Lynch is pushing for a car with a full self-driving system in the first version, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. It's just the latest shift for the car effort, known as the Special Projects Group or "Project Titan," which has endured strategy changes and executive turnover since starting around 2014.

Apple Inc. is pushing to accelerate development of its electric car and is refocusing the project around full self-driving capabilities, according to people familiar with the matter, aiming to solve a technical challenge that has bedeviled the auto industry. For the past several years, Apple's car team had explored two simultaneous paths: creating a model with limited self-driving capabilities focused on steering and acceleration -- similar to many current cars -- or a version with full self-driving ability that doesn't require human intervention.

Apple, which is rapidly losing ground in the electric vehicle industry to Tesla, GM, Ford and other automakers, is looking to have the'holy grail' option for its autonomous car by 2025: no human intervention at all. The lack of human intervention, which is being pushed by the project's new boss, Kevin Lynch (who previously led the company's Apple Watch software efforts) would be something that no automaker has yet to achieve, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news. Tesla, for all the publicity surrounding the Elon Musk-led company, has come under fire from consumers and lawmakers over its autopilot system and how it works. In August, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened a formal investigation into the system over 11 accidents - one deadly - feared to have been caused because the system has trouble spotting parked emergency vehicles. Apple wants the'holy grail' option for its oft-rumored autonomous car by 2025: no human intervention Apple's car could have no steering wheel or pedals and passengers could sit on the side, like a limousine or a bus Other automakers, such as GM and its Cruise unit, Ford and newly public Rivian, do not yet offer completely autonomous capabilities.

Apple Inc. is pushing to accelerate development of its electric car and is refocusing the project around full self-driving capabilities, according to people familiar with the matter, aiming to solve a technical challenge that has bedeviled the auto industry. For the past several years, Apple's car team had explored two simultaneous paths: creating a model with limited self-driving capabilities focused on steering and acceleration -- similar to most current cars from Tesla Inc. -- or a version with full self-driving ability that doesn't require human intervention. Under the effort's new leader -- Apple Watch software executive Kevin Lynch -- engineers are now concentrating on the second option. Lynch is pushing for a car with a full self-driving system in the first version, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. It's just the latest shift for the car effort, known as the Special Projects Group or "Project Titan," which has endured strategy changes and executive turnover since starting around 2014.

James Kuffner once reprogrammed a Prius to turn it into a driverless vehicle for Google. Now, he's a top executive at Toyota Motor Corp., charged with hacking the way it approaches the business of carmaking. Handpicked by President Akio Toyoda, the 50-year-old tech-industry veteran's mandate as chief digital officer is to keep the world's No. 1 automaker on top as cars become more like computers. The shift to electrified, autonomous vehicles is the most disruptive force sweeping the industry, with Apple Inc. and other Big Tech challengers muscling in. At stake for Toyota is a global manufacturing empire churning out more than 10 million vehicles a year.

Apple is in Japan meeting with Toyota executives about producing its long-rumored Apple Car by 2024, according to a media report. Executives at Apple, the world's most valuable company by market cap, are meeting with the Japanese automaker in Asia, as it tries to lay the groundwork for suppliers to help build the vehicle in the next few years, DigiTimes reported. The firm, led by Tim Cook, is also said to have met with South Korea's SK Group and LG Electronics last month on the secretive project. Apple has been working on a car project since 2014 under the code name Project Titan. Cook, who helms the normally secretive company, confirmed in 2017 that Apple was working on a car-related project.

At first glance, the forays Apple Inc., Google and other technology giants are making into the world of cars don't appear to be particularly lucrative. Building automobiles requires factories, equipment and an army of people to design and assemble large hunks of steel, plastic and glass. The world's top 10 carmakers had an operating margin of just 5.2% in 2020, a fraction of the 34% enjoyed by the tech industry's leaders, data compiled by Bloomberg show. But for Apple and other behemoths that are diving into self-driving tech or have grand plans for their own cars, that push isn't just about breaking into a new market -- it's about defending valuable turf. "Why are tech companies pushing into autonomous driving? Because they can, and because they have to," said Chris Gerdes, co-director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford University.

The long-rumored Apple car might finally become a reality. After sputtering in development several years ago and then being shut down before it saw the light of day, the tech giant's car project is apparently back on track. Several outlets, including CNBC and the Wall Street Journal, have reported that Apple is discussing a deal to manufacture a vehicle in the U.S. Apple did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment but the company rarely discusses future products. Given Apple's status as the world's most valuable company – it's worth about $2.3 trillion on the stock market – any new product it's pursuing should be taken seriously. "We continue to believe it's a matter of when, not if, Apple enters the EV race," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in a research note, referring to electric vehicles.