Apple cuts hundreds of employees from secretive self-driving car project

Apple has cut more than 200 employees from its self-driving car team, known internally as 'Project Titan'. Project Titan has been a significant but closely guarded project at the iPhone creator for nearly five years. At its height, it was said that over 5,000 employees were either working on or aware of the self-driving car projects reportedly lead by Ford and Apple veteran Bob Mansfield since 2014. The latest dismissals come as the company restructures its autonomous technology projects. Apple acknowledged the cuts, initially reported by CNBC, but said that it still sees a 'huge opportunity' in the sector. "We have an incredibly talented team working on autonomous systems and associated technologies at Apple," said an Apple spokesman. "As the team focuses their work on several key areas for 2019, some groups are being moved to projects in other parts of the company, where they will support machine learning and other initiatives, across all of Apple."  "We continue to believe there is a huge opportunity with autonomous systems, that Apple has unique capabilities to contribute, and that this is the most ambitious machine learning project ever." Apple has reportedly been testing its 'Project Titan' vehicles in and around its campus in Cupertino, California. Credit:  Reuters It is unclear how many of the 200 employees have left Apple altogether or have been moved to other projects within the company. However, it is reported that the restructure was expected following the August 2018 appointment of former Tesla engineering vice president, Doug Field, to lead Project Titan alongside Mansfield. Apple has regularly said that its autonomous vehicle project was a significant focus for the company, with CEO Tim Cook saying it was the 'mother of all AI projects' in 2017. While the actual tech behind Project Titan has remained a close secret, Apple had the third highest permit applications for self-driving vehicles in California behind General Motor's 'Cruise' and Waymo.  Apple has been reportedly testing its self-driving vehicles in and around its Cupertino headquarters, with the goal of an automated shuttle service running throughout its campus. In August 2018, it was confirmed by Californian authorities that an Apple test vehicle had been involved in a minor crash near its base after it was rear-ended by a human Nissan driver. Reports also have it that Apple has restructured Project Titan once before in 2016, scaling back the company's ambitions to build their own vehicle in order to focus on software and AI. Where this latest change leaves Project Titan remains to be seen while Apple continue to deal with the fallout from its shock profit warning earlier this month, cutting sales forecasts for the first time since 2002.

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