Apple fires more than 600 employees in California after abandoning electric car project

Apple is laying off 614 employees in California after abandoning its electric car project. According to a WARN notice posted by California, Apple notified affected employees on March 28 and the changes will take effect on May 27. The affected employees worked at eight locations in Santa Clara.

Although the notice did not specify which projects the employees were working on, Bloomberg reports that most of the affected employees were working in buildings related to its canceled car project, while others were working on next-generation screen development. Were working at a facility for.

Apple shut down both of these projects at the end of February. The company first began working on its car project, known internally as “Project Titan”, in 2014, and told employees it was canceling it on February 27. Bloomberg reported at the time that some of the remaining employees who were working on the car project were. This will be transferred to Apple’s generic AI projects.

Around the same time, Apple reportedly ended efforts to design and develop its own next-generation displays. The display was likely to be added to the company’s Apple Watch before potentially making its way to other devices.

The layoffs are the first major round of job cuts by Apple since the pandemic.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.