The layoffs affected eight workplaces in Santa Clara, California.
According to the most recent WARN report that was published by the Employment Development Department of California (EDD), Apple has lately experienced the loss of employment opportunity for more than 700 individuals. The majority of those who were terminated from their positions were employed at Apple’s offices in Santa Clara. Specifically, 371 of those individuals were from the corporate location that was primarily responsible for the company’s electric car project, which has since been discontinued. To comply with the requirements of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) program, businesses in the state of California are obligated to submit a report to the Employment Development Department (EDD) for each location that is impacted by layoffs.
Eight Apple locations in Santa Clara, including the main automobile office, were affected by layoffs. However, one of these locations worked on the company’s in-house MicroLED display project, which was apparently abandoned in March due to the high expenses involved and the challenges that were encountered with the technology. Although the business had high hopes of manufacturing its own displays for its smartwatches, iPhones, and Macs, it is now abundantly evident that this will not be achieved in the near future.
Apple’s initial plans for automobiles included the creation of a fully autonomous vehicle that did not require pedals or a steering wheel. However, the company ultimately decided to focus on the development of an electric vehicle instead. According to a previous report by Bloomberg, Apple decided to abandon the internal program known as “Project Titan” after funding it with billions of dollars and devoting a decade to its development. Apple has provided its staff who were working on the vehicle with the opportunity to transfer to other divisions of the company, including its teams that are apparently focused on artificial intelligence and home robotics. However, according to the WARN report that Apple released, the business was not successful in re-integrating all of its employees.
There are rumors that Apple is currently in the very beginning phases of developing personal robotics for individuals to use in their homes. According to a different story from Bloomberg, one of the machines that is now in the process of being developed is a robot that follows people around, while the other is a table-top gadget that employs a robot to move a display around. It is part of the firm’s efforts to create new sources of revenue, which also include the Vision Pro, that the company is working on personal robotics.