Project Titan faces another road block: unhappy with progress, Apple reportedly freezes hiring

icar

AppleInsider reported Monday that Apple’s automotive ambitions are at crossroads as the company has reportedly instituted a hiring freeze on the 1,000+ person team responsible for so-called Project Titan after a recent progress review.

Jony Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, is said to have “expressed his displeasure” with the group’s headway following a post-holiday review of the secretive project.

Citing a previously reliable source with knowledge of the team’s activities, AppleInsider said Apple’s bosses have become unhappy with the project’s direction and progress.

Three days ago, The Wall Street Journal found out that Steve Zadesky, a longtime Apple engineering lead who was initially put in charge of Project Titan, would leave the company for “personal reasons”.

It was also reported previously that Apple at some point spoke with BMW about a partnership that would permit it to use BMW’s electric i3 model as a development platform.

Apple’s ambitious goal for the project is said to call for the completion of final engineering by 2019. Earlier today, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said that Apple and Google have made more progress on automotive projects than he had assumed.

Source: AppleInsider