The Apple car was never a sure thing

This week’s decision by Apple Computer to abandon its pursuit of building an automobile — we'll never know if it was to be named “iCar” — is certain to spur a deluge of books and articles analyzing the project from its infancy to its dissolution.

The New York Times is serving readers’ fascination with the company by taking a first crack at analyzing the moves and mistakes Apple made along the way.

The story combines what is essentially a “clip job”— collecting and rewriting the millions of words written throughout the past decade — with new reporting and insights from project insiders and others. Not surprisingly, neither Apple nor Elon Musk — Tesla was always to be target of Apple’s car — responded formally to the paper’s request for comments. Though Musk did responded to the news on X with an emoji of a salute and a cigarette, whatever that's supposed to mean.

Even though followers of the Apple car drama may be familiar with bits and pieces of the story’s details, the Times provides a one-size-fits-all primer to digest the history of what became known as Project Titan.

Since its inception in 2014, according to reporters Brian X. Chen and Tripp Mickle, the program suffered several ups and downs, initially proposed as an electric vehicle to compete primarily with Tesla. Later it was to become an autonomous car.