Apple confirms self-driving car layoffs

Apple has laid off 190 employees working on the company’s self-driving car project, codenamed Project Titan. The layoffs were first reported on in January, but now we know that most of the affected employees are engineers. 

Additional details about the dismissals were unearthed in Apple’s letter to the California Employment Development Department, first reported on by the San Francisco Chronicle. 

According to the letter, Apple laid off 38 engineering program managers, 33 hardware engineers, 31 product design engineers and 22 software engineers, taking effect on April 16. 

The news comes after a not-so-great quarter for Apple, in which the company’s iPhone revenue fell 15 percent year-over-year. 

But the Project Titan layoffs probably aren’t just about saving money. Apple’s self-driving car project has been ramped up and down and re-thought countless times, according to numerous reports over the years. Irrespective of what Apple’s plans for the project, this latest round of layoffs is a bad sign. 

Apple submitted a self-driving car safety report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration a week ago, though it was as vague and brief as they come. Interestingly, back in August 2018 Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (who is often right about Apple’s plans) said Apple is still very seriously working on a self-driving car, which may launch between 2023 and 2025.