Apple planning to cancel its car

According to reports, Apple is poised to put the brakes on 'Project Titan'

Apple is already planning to cancel its long-awaited car, with large numbers of engineers being moved off the project and on to other teams within the company, or forced out altogether.

According to sources close to Bloomberg, there have already been hundreds of job cuts within the car development programme, dubbed Project Titan internally at Apple.

The company is instead realigning its efforts towards developing autonomous driving software, which will enable it either to work with an existing car manufacturer, or return to developing its own vehicle in the future.

According to reports the decision to axe development of its own car, while likely, is not yet certain, with a deadline in 2017 having been set for the final call.

Apple engineer Bob Mansfield, the designer behind the Apple Watch and MacBook Air, has apparently been unable to find the same level of success with the car project.

Earlier this year both BMW and Daimler decided not to partner with Apple over an autonomous car project, citing privacy concerns over the use of customer data.

Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk's firm Tesla is viewed by many as a leader in the autonomous vehicle field, though it too has encountered problems. Following several high-profile accidents, the manufacturer was recently banned in Germany from advertising its vehicles as having an autopilot feature.

The country's regulators declared the term to be misleading, since the cars do not actually drive themselves, with the driver expected to keep his or her hands on the steering wheel at all times.