4 Reasons Why Apple Fired 200 Employees At Autonomous Vehicle Group

• Apple’s loss of interest in the autonomous car project
• Higher focus on the health sector as a growth area
• Apple’s stock performance’s linkage with iPhone sales
• Concerns over falling RoI in the self-driving car sector

Apple’s reported firing of 200 plus employees from Project Titan, its autonomous vehicle group has kindled speculations that there are more reasons than the stated restructuring of the unit under new leadership.

According to a report by CNBC, the firing of the staff was a restructuring exercise after Tesla veteran and former Apple hand Doug Field took charge of the project alongside Bob Mansfield.

Project Titan has been making news as a stealthy autonomous vehicle group.

A spokesperson of Apple also ruled out any going back on the project as the company is still upbeat on the autonomous vehicle space.

There is a “huge opportunity with autonomous systems where Apple has unique capabilities to contribute,” he added.

The spokesperson said the team had been working on several key areas and many groups are moving to projects in machine learning and other initiatives.

In August, 2018, Apple hired Doug Field, who was working as a Tesla engineering vice president. But analysts are digging deeper into the dismissals and citing many other plausible reasons.

Other Reasons

Analysts attribute many reasons. One is the quest of Apple to focus on a stable vertical for future growth. After the super success of the iPhone launched in 2007, Apple had been enjoying a good ride. But slowing iPhone sales and rising competition have made it look at other options.

Secondly, Apple CEO Tim Cook has been repeating health as a key area of its future growth.

“I believe if you zoom out into the future, and you look back, and you ask the question, 'What was Apple's greatest contribution to mankind?' it will be about health,” Cook told CNBC and set 2019 as the year of the Apple service launch.

No word on car project

The continued silence of Apple executives on the company's car project has added to the talk of probable dithering on the project.

A scaling back of the project from vehicle to software was also talked about in the market. In 2016, Apple laid off some staff in the car group.

Self-driving cars are still not commercially viable and are at the experimental level. This is despite major players such as Waymo, Cruise, and Tesla actively pursuing the technology.

Billions of dollars have been pumped by venture capitalists and other investors into start-ups for developing self-driving vehicles. These include Zoox, Pony.AI, Aurora, May Mobility, Embark, and others.

Steve Job’s Vision

A few months before his death, Steven Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and former CEO, told The New York Times that his dream was to take on Detroit with an Apple car. His passion for the Apple car has been endorsed by board member Mickey Drexler who said iCar was Job’s passion.

Apple Stock Vagaries

According to market watchers, the dilution of focus on the autonomous vehicle also has something to do with returns on investment (RoI).

In November, 2018, Apple was the largest publicly traded company in the world, largely powered by sales of the iPhone.

But a warning on earnings has hammered the Apple stock and it has crashed an about 35 percent from the high in November.