The Apple Car may have been canceled, but it laid the groundwork for Apple Intelligence.

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      According to reports, ten years of work on a scrapped automotive project may have set the stage for Apple Intelligence.

      **Apple Intelligence in Apple Car**

      Varun Mirchandani / Digital Trends

      Although the Apple Car never made it to the market, it allegedly sparked Apple's AI initiatives. As stated by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple's canceled autonomous vehicle project, which took over a decade and more than $10 billion before being terminated in 2024, ultimately established the technological groundwork for Apple Intelligence. In an ironic twist, one of Apple's most significant failures could transform into one of its most crucial long-term investments.

      The Apple Car pushed Apple to adopt an AI company mentality

      When Apple embarked on developing its self-driving car, the goal was more than merely producing an electric vehicle. The company aimed for Level 5 autonomy, the highest tier where a vehicle can function independently without human involvement.

      This ambitious objective compelled Apple to confront significant engineering hurdles: managing vast AI tasks locally and in real time. To achieve this, engineers heavily invested in machine learning research and created custom silicon specifically designed for AI processing. While the chip meant for the car never reached production, the foundational work evolved into the Neural Engine, Apple’s dedicated AI processor embedded in nearly every modern Apple chip.

      The first Neural Engine was introduced in the iPhone X in 2017, enabling features like Face ID and Animoji. Since then, Apple has gradually integrated this technology throughout its product line. All Apple Silicon Macs released since 2020 include a Neural Engine, providing Macs with dedicated hardware for running AI tasks locally without solely relying on the cloud.

      Its impact extends well beyond the iPhone

      Bloomberg reports that the effects of the halted vehicle initiative reach far beyond consumer products. The same research has reportedly informed Apple’s Ultra-class Mac chips and the custom processors operating Apple Intelligence servers. Although Apple has faced challenges delivering AI software features at the same pace as competitors like Google and Microsoft, the company has spent over a decade quietly developing the necessary hardware to support them. Those early investments are beginning to yield returns as Apple continues to advance Apple Intelligence and revamp Siri utilizing more advanced AI models.

      Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends

      This aspect of the narrative is particularly intriguing. The Apple Car is often regarded as a major failure because it never arrived in customers’ hands. However, internally, Bloomberg indicates that the project achieved something arguably more significant: it fast-tracked Apple’s AI hardware expertise years ahead of generative AI becoming the industry's primary focus. In retrospect, the company's abandoned vehicle may never take people from one location to another. Nevertheless, the technology it inspired is already fueling Apple’s next generation of AI experiences, which could be the far more critical destination.

      Varun is an established technology journalist and editor, bringing over eight years of experience in consumer tech media. His work covers...

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