Apple's Indecisive Stand On Project Titan Causes Hundreds Of Employees To Lose Jobs

Apple appears to be indecisive on what it wants to do with Project Titan. The Cupertino giant has reduced its efforts in realizing the project at the expense of reassigning or cutting off some employees from it. Now, it’s next move could either be partnering with an established automaker or just putting the project on the side until it realizes what it initially planned to do with it.

According to AppleInsider, the team behind Project Titan — composed of thousands of people — has now been greatly reduced after hundreds of employees either left or were reassigned or removed from the project. With the reduction in number, the remaining people are now tasked to prove by late 2017 on why Apple should move forward with the project that is grounded on self-driving technology.

Among the people that were removed from the project, about 120 software engineers working on a car OS were laid off. Several hardware engineers were also let go. The layoffs reportedly began in August. It isn’t clear how many people are still part of the team at present.

Supposedly, Apple’s Project Titan was initially rumored to showcase the Cupertino giant’s electric car by 2019 or 2020. Given the present situation, however, everything seems to be uncertain at this point. To prove just how unsure this prove is, even project leader Steve Zadesky decided to bow out of it early this year.

As news about the late 2017 deadline surfaced, many tech and news sites opined on how this could already mean the end for Apple’s ambition to penetrate the automotive industry. MIT Technology Review reports that the situation at present just tells of how Apple is actually struggling to figure out what it should do to make this project work.

Meanwhile, Slate is already expecting the demise of Project Titan by stating that Apple has already failed on realizing its goals for the project that was initially rumored to focus on manufacturing electric cars and later on self-driving electric cars. The site also claims that while the new information about Project Titan comes from an anonymous source, it is consistent with previous reports from Bloomberg and the New York Times.