The Apple car joins Facebook’s phone, Microsoft’s fitness tracker and Amazon’s second headquarters as a dashed company dream that will not be missed.
Oddly, Apple never confirmed the existence of its electric, self-driving car project. The cost of development was not made explicit in expenses. Yet when the project was shuttered, the share price rose 1 per cent. Even without any details it is obvious that jettisoning a decade-long undertaking with no release date should help performance.
It is a good time to pull back on investment in driverless cars. McKinsey puts the driverless private passenger vehicle market at a possible $400bn by 2035. But so far, the industry’s collective efforts have cost more than $160bn and revenues are paltry.