Codenamed Project Titan, Apple's car started with a clear goal in mind: keep the company at the forefront of the automotive migration, especially as rivals, including Google, were betting big on projects in this space.
Apple's automotive direction wasn't necessarily dictated by CEO Tim Cook but by engineers who pressed the leadership team for a new ambitious project. With the Apple Watch already on the market and becoming a hit, the engineers who worked on the smartwatch were aiming for a new, challenging device.
It's how a self-driving vehicle landed on the drawing board. Apple's CEO wasn't particularly excited about a self-driving car, but he knew the company had to invest in this space. Additionally, it couldn't risk losing its engineers to automakers, including Tesla, especially as the competition in this market was fiercer, and the search for talent was a threat to tech giants.
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