It was very obvious the Apple car project was never going to happen. So obvious that it never even felt real when I read the headlines. Apple is not a car company and Apple is not willing to transform itself into a car company.
Much rather this than releasing yet another half-assed, techno-heavy, EV.
600 staff had a great time getting paid to muck around on a dev project at Apple. Priceless.
Fun quip, but it is the second part of the GP's sentence that's key: "... and Apple is not willing to transform itself into a car company."
Apple is an electronics company in the same sense that Louis Vuitton is a handbag manufacturer. Apple is a fashion company.
Vehicles are doing more and more processing - the work of servers. Distributing moving servers around the world to process data at that specific location is useful and becoming more and more so.
Yes there are some incidental parts that Apple has skill at making. Perhaps they should provide touch-panels for the car controls? The interface would be better than what's out there.
The most significant evidence that Apple isn't a car manufacturer is, that they have just thrown up their hands and cancelled the project, with essentially the defense that "We don't know how to do anything involved in making a car" e.g. distribution, manufacturing, certifications and on and on.
They contain computing devices, but so does my toothbrush and kettle - they are defined by the main thing they do like cars - which move people around in comfort and safety.