Apple rethinking its self-driving car plans after mass staff lay-offs
Apple's appears to rethinking its plans to develop a self-driving car after laying-off staff involved in the project.
Apple
The tech giant has shuttered parts of its self-driving car project- codenamed Project Titan- and laid off dozens of employees, according to reports in the New York Times.
Employees were told that the layoffs were part of a “reboot” of the car project, however Apple has declined to comment on the matter.
Apple's plans to develop self-driving cars have been rumoured since 2014, but confirmation of the initiative only emerged at its annual shareholders meeting earlier this year. The project expanded rapidly over the two year period, growing to more than 1,000 employees.
The job cuts follow on from a growing number of problems which emerged as the programme grew in scale. This led to highly regarded Apple veteran, Bob Mansfield, coming on board to oversee the project in July this year.
Mansfield's arrival coincided with a shift in strategy with a new focus on building out the underlying technology for an autonomous vehicle rather than actually building the cars.
The move is similar to that of Google which has been designing the underlying software and systems for self-driving cars.