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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.jpg

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.

Article Link: Apple Lays Off 600+ Employees After Canceling Car Project
 
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Reactions: d0sed0se and u+ive
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.
 
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.
 
I hope all of the people that are a part of the lay off are able to get jobs somewhere else. I think it is completely unacceptable that they couldn't find something for these people. So they can spend 10 Billion on R&D for a write down but let's screw over the people that did all the hard work??

And btw who wanted this project? Tim Cook.

It needs to be said, Tim Cook is not a good CEO for Apple. He is going to continue to drag them down.

The Apple train... Choo Choo All aboard... Next Stop- Lack of Innovation and then Planned Obsolescence.

Guess what we get soon? Another batch of Air Pods! Why? Let's confuse people even more with the ridiculous amount of options for Apple products!

Or better yet... An iPhone and iPad that barely has a new feature!

Who wants an Apple Watch that can't use the Oxygen Sensor because they ripped off a patent? How many patents is that now that they ripped off?

It is actually embarrassing at this point.

This whole marketing BS that Tim spews every time during at a product presentation "At Apple..." He has ZERO Vision.

I hope the world starts to see Apple for what they are: Arrogant/Greedy

The DOJ case should shed some more light for the world.

Here is a Tim Cook quote:

"Our goal has never been to make the most. It's always been to make the best. For us, the most important thing we can do is raise people up - that is, either by giving the ability to do things they could not otherwise do, allow them to create things they couldn't otherwise create."

Right Tim Cook! You really care about people. 🤢
 
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