Apple’s autonomous vehicle ambitions just hit another roadblock. The Cupertino tech giant plans to eliminate 190 positions across Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, all within its self-driving car unit known internally as Project Titan.
This latest workforce reduction comes as Apple grapples with weakening iPhone demand. Revenue slid 15 percent during the final quarter of 2018, while an economic slowdown in China compounds the pressure.
A filing with California’s Employment Development Department reveals the cuts target mostly engineering talent. Among those affected: 38 engineering program managers, 33 hardware engineers, 31 product design engineers, and 22 software engineers. The terminations take effect April 16.
Lynx Equity Strategies warned in an analyst report last month that the iPhone revenue shortfall could force Apple to shutter Project Titan entirely.
The layoffs follow hundreds of job cuts in the same division back in 2016. At that time, Apple pivoted away from building its own vehicle to focus on autonomous software instead. More recently, the company partnered with Volkswagen to convert T6 Transporter vans into self-driving shuttles for employees.
Testing data underscores the division’s struggles. Between November 2017 and December 2018, Apple logged just 79,745 autonomous miles in California. Meanwhile, its system required human intervention every 1.1 miles. Competitors perform dramatically better: Waymo reports a disengagement every 11,017 miles, while GM’s Cruise manages one every 5,204 miles.
Apple’s self-driving rivals include Waymo, Cruise, and Tesla.
The affected properties span eight locations, including Kifer Road addresses in both Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, plus sites on Patrick Henry Drive, San Ysidro Way, and North Wolfe Road.
As of 2016, Apple employed roughly 25,000 people across the Bay Area. Whether Project Titan survives this latest contraction remains an open question.
