Apple Lays Off 600+ Employees After Canceling Car Project

Apple this week filed a required notice with the state of California, confirming plans to permanently lay off more than 600 employees. Under California law, employers must give employees and state representatives a 60-day notice before a mass layoff event.

Apple car wheel icon feature yellow
The employees listed are located in several Apple-occupied buildings around Santa Clara, California, which is close to Apple's Cupertino headquarters. Several of these locations were rumored to be associated with Apple Car development in the past, so it is likely that these layoffs are related to Apple's decision to stop work on the car project.

Apple officially ended development on the Apple Car in March. Approximately 2,000 employees working on the Apple Car were told that the project was winding down at that time, and Apple began the process of moving some of them to work on artificial intelligence under John Giannandrea and in other relevant departments.

Other employees were given 90 days to apply for open positions within the company, but Apple hired hardware engineers and car designers while working on the Apple Car, and these employees may not have had skills applicable to other projects.

Apple also recently ended development on in-house microLED displays, so some of the layoffs might also be related to the decision to discontinue that work.

Popular Stories

iOS 26 Battery Glass Feature

iOS 26.1 Beta Liquid Glass Battery Drain Test: Tinted vs Clear Mode

Friday October 24, 2025 2:30 pm PDT by
In the fourth iOS 26.1 beta, Apple added a "Tinted" option that reduces the translucency of Liquid Glass for those who prefer a more opaque look. I saw some comments wondering whether the setting might preserve battery life, so I thought I'd do some testing. Test Settings I did four separate tests using the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and I kept the parameters as similar as possible. Here are the...
iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features for Your iPhone

Wednesday October 22, 2025 6:15 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. iOS 26.1 is currently in beta testing. The update will likely be released in the first half of November, and it is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer, but some...
iOS 26 Maps Glass

Apple Reportedly Moving Ahead With Ads in Maps App

Sunday October 26, 2025 6:22 am PDT by
Apple Maps could feature integrated ads as soon as next year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that Apple's plan to bring more ads to iOS is moving "gaining traction," with the Maps app being next in line. The project will apparently give restaurants and other businesses the option to pay to have their details featured more prominently in...
Emergency SOS via Satellite iPhone YT

iPhone 18 Pro Rumored to Support Full 5G Satellite Internet

Friday October 24, 2025 7:18 am PDT by
At least some new iPhone models launching next year may support full 5G satellite internet, according to a report this week from The Information. "Apple plans to add support in upcoming iPhones as early as next year for 5G networks that aren't tethered to Earth's surface, which includes satellites," the report said. "That would give the iPhone full internet access over satellite," it added. ...
trump white house ballroom

Apple Donating to Trump's $350M White House Ballroom Project

Thursday October 23, 2025 3:55 pm PDT by
Apple is one of several tech companies that will contribute to the construction of U.S. President Donald Trump's 90,000-square-foot ballroom, reports CNN. Construction began on the ballroom this week, and the White House's east wing was torn down. Trump claims that the ballroom will cost $350 million, and that it will be privately funded through donations. The cost has already increased $150 ...
iPhone 17 Colors

iPhone 18 Rumored to Feature 50% More RAM

Saturday October 25, 2025 2:57 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 could feature 50% more memory than its predecessor, according to Korea's The Bell. With its latest iPhone lineup, the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max feature 12GB of memory. This is a significant increase of 4GB more their predecessors, largely driven by the demands of on-device artificial intelligence processing. The iPhone 17 is the only new...
All Screen iPhone 2027 Feature 1

Report: Apple to Skip 'iPhone 19' Name for 'iPhone 20'

Thursday October 23, 2025 4:28 am PDT by
Apple's new iPhone lineup launched in the fall of 2027 will be called the "iPhone 20" models, rather than the "iPhone 19," according to research firm Omdia. Speaking at a conference in Seoul (via ETNews), Omdia Chief Researcher Heo Moo-yeol corroborated rumors that Apple plans to move the launch of its standard iPhone to the first half of the year and provided some additional clarity about...
iOS 26 Feature

iOS 26 Leaker Being Sued by Apple is Actually a 'Lifelong Apple Fanboy'

Friday October 24, 2025 9:20 am PDT by
In July, Apple sued well-known YouTuber Jon Prosser and his acquaintance Michael Ramacciotti over alleged theft of the company's trade secrets, after Prosser leaked some iOS 26 details in videos uploaded to his YouTube channel Front Page Tech. If you are not caught up on the lawsuit, read our initial coverage to learn more. Earlier this week, Prosser told The Verge he has "been in active...
maxresdefault

The MacRumors Show: iPhone Air Is in Trouble

Friday October 24, 2025 8:32 am PDT by
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss the latest rumors about the iPhone Air not selling as well as Apple hoped. Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos There have been many recent reports suggesting the iPhone Air has failed to catch on with consumers, with Apple moving to cut production due to lower-than-expected sales. The first warning sign was...

Top Rated Comments

vegetassj4 Avatar
21 months ago
Couldn’t they have just released another dongle or polishing cloth to make up for the $$$?
Score: 47 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mac.Matt Avatar
21 months ago
We are witnessing a repeat of Xerox and the like from the 1970s. Apple continues to develop and innovate, but is no longer able to go to market with new products. Even in the 90s Apple was trying many different things.

I want them to prove me wrong.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tazinlwfl Avatar
21 months ago
The only tech company (or company in general) that has this report tied to the actual lack of work because of a closed project, not “we laid off 15% of our workforce to increase profits and enact share buybacks”… and this type of thing is super rare for Apple. Can’t be too disappointed.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ethanwa79 Avatar
21 months ago
600 people is a lot. And a 2000 person team. All for it to be scrapped?

With a team that large you’d think they would have really been able to create something amazing.
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rgwebb Avatar
21 months ago

This is the first time in decades that I can recall hearing about an Apple mass layoff event.
No solace for those getting laid off but at least it was due to Apple deciding to end a program they gave over a decade to get off the ground but decided on cutting their losses now. Many of these big tech layoffs have been due to loose hiring practices in the late 2010s that went into overdrive during the pandemic.

Apple got into the automobile space - at least in research and development - because there was a prevailing thought that revolutionary advancements in automation were around the corner. I think many in the tech industry - and financing side of tech - got swept up by charlatans who knew how to drum up investment in a speculation-friendly economic climate (low interest rates).

There has been a broad understanding that full-self driving isn't happening soon on any appreciable business time scale that matters to investors. Apple got into the space because they thought they could be a leader in an emerging product space but instead were just going to be making something that other luxury brands have a century advantage on them.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AlexStudios Avatar
21 months ago
this is really... really disappointing.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)