Per reporter: Duan Siyao Per reporter Per jing editor: Sun Lei, Sun Zhicheng
Apple's car has not yet been "online" to be exposed to "offline".
On the evening of March 15, Guo Mingxi, an analyst at Tianfeng Securities, broke the news on social media: Apple's auto team has been disbanded for some time. If you want to mass-produce Apple Car in 2025, you need to reorganize your team within 3 to 6 months.
If Guo Mingxi's revelation is true, it means that Apple cannot complete the mass production of Apple Car before the long-publicized 2025 deadline. Previously, Guo Mingxi expected that Apple would launch the Apple Car between 2023 and 2025.
The news of the dissolution of Apple's car-making team surprised netizens. Because just last month, an Apple patent on a car sunroof was also exposed. According to foreign media reports, this patent on the car sunroof uses adjustable transparent glass to adjust the transparency of the car sunroof. In addition, Apple's key supply chain manufacturers have also confirmed that Apple plans to release the first Apple Car in September next year.
Employees of the car-making team have left one after another
In January, Joe Bass, head of software engineering projects for Apple's automotive team, left. Previously, he had been working on the Apple car project for 7 years, and he was a veteran. With the departure of Joe Bass, Apple's automotive management team a year ago left almost entirely.
Image source: Visual China
According to Bloomberg, Apple has lost its core team members of autonomous driving and cars since last year, and the executive team has also ushered in a major change, including Dave Scott, who leads the automotive robotics team, Jaime Waydo, who leads the self-driving car safety and regulation team, and Benjamin Lyon, who helped create Apple's original car team a few years ago and played a key role in the development of the project.
As of June 2021, there are reports that there are fewer than 12 senior executives on Apple's self-driving car team.
Over the past few years, Apple has recruited many high-profile individuals for the automotive team, including former Tesla executives responsible for drive systems and manufacturing engineering, automotive interiors and exteriors, and self-driving software, as well as other auto industry veterans and executives who have developed Apple's key products.
It is reported that at the beginning of the launch of the car-making plan, Apple used a huge amount of money to dig high-end talents from Chrysler, Ford, Tesla and other car companies, and set up a car-making team with a scale of up to 1,000 employees. Statistics show that nearly 1/4 of the employees on apple's automotive team come from Tesla.
Apple has also eaten a lot of lawsuits because of "digging people" everywhere. In late 2014, Sebastien Marineau, senior vice president of BlackBerry, joined Apple's automotive team as vice president of core systems. Prior to joining Apple, he was the head of QNX, the underlying system for the car machine, which runs on more than 175 million vehicles.
BlackBerry was furious at Apple's "digging man" and decided to file a lawsuit against Marillol for "forcing" him to work for Six Months on the grounds of non-compete restrictions and failure to provide reasonable resignation notices, which is also regarded as a classic case of executive competition between large American companies.
Repeatedly adjusted the strategic direction of the automotive business
In 2014, Tesla asked Apple CEO Tim Cook to buy him for $60 billion on its darkest days, but the latter refused to meet. Subsequently, Apple secretly launched the car-making plan, the Titan Project. But soon after, Titan plans to change from building complete vehicles to self-driving software research and development. The adjustment of the strategy led to the team began to lay off employees, according to statistics, from August 2016 to the beginning of 2017, a large number of employees responsible for hardware research and development left.
It wasn't until 2018 that Tesla vice president Doug Field returned to apple cars to advance the Titan program with other executives. Since then, he has brought in several former Tesla executives responsible for self-driving software, interior and exterior design of the car, and drivetrain, and the number of Apple's automotive team is about 2,000 to 2,500 people. There are rumors that Apple has once again adjusted its strategy and started the research and development of vehicle manufacturing.
Perhaps because there was no obvious effect in car building, in January 2019, Apple's auto team once again laid off more than 200 employees. In 2020, Apple Car restarted hiring, releasing more than 300 positions a year in hopes of filling the gap in the Titan program. At the same time, the car manufacturing process will be shortened through the acquisition of companies. In early 2020, Apple tried to acquire electric car company Canopy in the hope of acquiring the company's electric vehicle platform, but it ultimately failed.
In 2021, Apple once again sought cooperation everywhere, throwing an olive branch to many companies in the upstream and downstream supply chains. However, on the oem side, Apple suspended cooperation with Hyundai and discussed with Nissan to no avail. Ningde Times and BYD, a domestic first-tier supplier that had reported cooperation with Apple, also refused to be its battery supplier.
The wobbly strategy and executive infighting have delayed apple cars. Nowadays, Apple's car has not yet been "online" to be exposed to "offline", which is also expected.
Reporters | Duan Siyao| Sun Lei, Sun Zhicheng, and Wang Jiaqi
Proofread | duan lian
| the original article of the daily economic news nbdnews |
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