The saga of tech giant Apple’s decade-long effort to build an automobile is one that we’ve known about for some time now – though that process is a long and winding one, full of ups and downs. As Ford Authority previously reported, Project Titan – as it was called internally – hit a major snag back in 2021 when Doug Field left Apple for Ford, as he was leading that effort at the time. We later learned that Field departed the company because he was skeptical that Apple cars would ever truly exist, and as it turns out, he was right to have doubts, as the project was officially canceled late last month. Now, a new report from Bloomberg is shedding even more light on the Apple cars project – this time, with some rather surprising news related to The Blue Oval.
It was well known that Apple considered partnering with or even acquiring a number of established automakers to help with this project, companies such as Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen and McLaren – all in an effort to help mitigate the tremendously high costs involved with creating a vehicle from scratch. However, Apple’s vision of making cars dated all the way back to the late 2000s, when then-CEO Steve Jobs expressed his desire to create “this generation’s new Volkswagen Beetle,” and the company even considered acquiring General Motors during the 2008 financial crisis to make that happen, when it was on the brink of failure.
However, the most surprising bit of news that stems from this report notes that Apple actually met with Ford to discuss a proposal from The Blue Oval that would have resulted in Apple cars being sold via the Lincoln brand. The concept revolved around the idea that such a partnership could be used to test self-driving technology, but apparently, these talks never progressed past the early stages.
Ultimately, this is now something of a moot point – a footnote in automotive history, as the Apple car has officially been canceled and looks unlikely to ever resurface. However, it’s truly fascinating that the tech giant seemingly explored every possible avenue, burning through billions in cash and changing direction multiple times before ultimately giving up.
We’ll have more on everything Ford’s competition is up to soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
No Comments yet