Apple Car: The Failure That Gave Us Powerful AI Chips

Apple spent a decade and billions of dollars trying to build a self-driving car, a project shrouded in mystery and codenamed "Project Titan." It was the dream of entering the automotive world with a revolutionary vehicle, but it ultimately proved to be a dead end.

Despite the massive investment of time and resources, the Apple Car never saw the light of day. The project was officially shelved in February 2024, leaving behind a trail of reallocated engineers and shattered dreams. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman documented the failure of Apple's self-driving car project, known as "Project Titan," in several articles.

And this is where the story takes an interesting, almost ironic, turn. For a self-driving car to work, it needed an insane amount of artificial intelligence, processed directly on board the vehicle. We're talking about real-time decisions, without the delay of an internet connection.

Apple's engineers quickly realized that standard chips weren't enough. They started designing dedicated AI processors, specifically for the car's brain. During Apple Car's development, Apple realized the need for powerful on-device AI processing, crucial for safety and responsiveness.

Exactly. Even if the car ended up in oblivion, the work on those AI chips wasn't wasted. This research gave birth to the famous Neural Engine, the neural engine found today in the A-series processors of iPhones and M-series of Macs. It's the part of the chip that handles everything "smart."

Today, the Neural Engine is a key component of M-series processors, like the M7 Ultra mentioned in the source, powering the latest MacBook Pros and Mac Studios. These chips handle Siri, facial recognition, photo processing, and many other smart functions directly on your device. In short, the Apple Car flop gave us a lot of intelligence, but only in our pocket gadgets.