According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s canceled autonomous vehicle project, which consumed more than a decade of work and over $10 billion before being scrapped in 2024, laid the technological foundation for Apple Intelligence. The project aimed for Level 5 autonomous driving, forcing Apple to tackle processing enormous AI workloads locally and in real time. Engineers invested heavily in machine learning research and custom silicon, and the underlying work evolved into the Neural Engine, Apple’s dedicated AI processor. The first Neural Engine arrived inside the iPhone X in 2017, and every Apple Silicon Mac launched since 2020 includes a Neural Engine. Bloomberg says the impact also influenced Apple’s Ultra-class Mac chips and the custom processors running Apple Intelligence servers. While Apple has struggled to deliver AI software features as quickly as rivals, the company has spent more than a decade building the required hardware. Bloomberg suggests the project accelerated Apple’s expertise in AI hardware years before generative AI became the industry’s biggest battleground.