Why Cupertino killed the Apple Car

More details on the doomed effort emerge.

Author

Leander Kahney
March 07, 2024

If you’re feeling too happy today and want to be depressed about something, read our top post about the death of Apple’s self-driving car project.

It paints a picture of behind-the-scenes corporate dysfunction, out-of-control hubris, and massive missed opportunities.

The car — or rather, cars — Apple was working on sounded amazing, if only they had come to fruition. (Reading between the lines, a weird, common thread to the various iterations is a car that was identical front and back, for reasons unexplained.)

It makes me even more bummed out about what might have been. Apple is possibly the only company with the vision and resources to completely rethink a product like the car.

But then again, there’s Tesla, Waymo, Rivian, Hyundai, Kia, BYD and many other innovative companies with great products already on the market, so perhaps it’s not the greatest loss.

Still, what might have been?

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— Leander Kahney, EIC.

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One more thing ...

❝

I was on one of my fruitarian diets. I had just come back from the apple farm. It sounded fun, spirited and not intimidating. “Apple” took the edge off the word “computer.” Plus, it would get us ahead of Atari in the phone book.

— Steve Jobs on the origin of Apple’s name, 2011.

Today’s poll

How bummed are you *now* about Apple Car?

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Results from yesterday’s poll: Have you used an iPhone for translations?

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