After a decade of development and $10 billion, Apple's autonomous vehicle project was cancelled yesterday, and its 2,000 employees have been reassigned to work on AI.
First of all — what a shame.
An Apple car could have been a perfect product, relatively bug-free and elegant in the way only Apple knows how to pull off.
But what really struck me about this news was the thought of those 2,000 people on the project.
How does a person feel when they wake up one morning and discover that all the blood and sweat they poured into the last ten years has turned to dust?
How do you get back in the car, drive to work, open your laptop, and start on a new project as if nothing happened?
Sure, they were paid a salary all those years — but we don't work just for the money. We work mainly to leave a mark, to see the things we built become reality and create something of value.
Have you ever dealt with a feeling like that? Built something with your own two hands, only to watch it vanish like a sandcastle?
In the image:
An AI-generated vision of the Apple Car. 🙈