OAN’s James Myers
8:52am – Friday, April 5, 2024
Apple will reportedly lay off 614 employees after canceling a 10-year project to develop self-driving electric cars, in its first layoffs since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.
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The iPhone manufacturing company notified employees of the layoffs on March 28th.thchanges will take effect on May 27ththaccording to wall street journal.
bloomberg reported last month that the company had scrapped plans to develop its own display for the Apple Watch and furloughed employees, saying the “cost and complexity” proved too high.
Also targeted for layoffs are hardware engineers, machine shop managers, and product design engineers involved in secret projects.
The move also comes just a month after Apple scrapped its electric vehicle (EV) plans and switched its focus to artificial intelligence.
When announcing the layoffs in late February, Apple also told its 2,000 staff members involved in high-tech vehicle development that it would cease work on electric vehicles, known as the Special Projects Group (SPG).
according to wall street journalCEO Tick Cook argued last year that Apple’s job cuts would be a last resort in a time of slumping employment and cost-cutting.
Apple was able to avoid large-scale layoffs after employees were laid off last year at multiple tech companies, including Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft.
A total of 57,785 employees have now been laid off by technology companies since 2023, according to the tracker. layoff.fyi.
Meanwhile, demand for electric vehicles continues to decline in the United States, while demand continues to increase in the international sector.
Ford announced this week that it would postpone production of a three-row electric vehicle in Canada and a next-generation electric pickup truck in Tennessee, citing declining demand.
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