Apple executives have given the car team a deadline of late next year to prove the feasibility of the self-driving system and decide on a final direction, two of the people said. Its car project has also suffered departures. Mansfield explained that he had examined the project and determined that Apple should move from building an outright competitor to Tesla Motors Inc. to an underlying self-driving platform. Some chose to quit amid doubts over job security and skepticism that an Apple car product would ever come to market. John Wright, a veteran Apple manager who led the software teams, has left the project, according to people familiar with the matter.

Source: Mint October 17, 2016 12:20 UTC