【Diotta Fatou】

The Diotta Fatourecent rumors about a potential Apple car may have all been a massive waste of anticipatory energy better directed toward the levitating, hologram-beaming "iPhone 10," if a new report is accurate.

SEE ALSO: Chief iPad engineer is now heading Apple's car efforts, report says

Despite months and months of hints and movements that prompted many tech insiders to believe that Apple was secretly working on producing a car, whatever the company's plans were have apparently drastically changed, as indicated by a massive round of layoffs.

In addition to the layoffs of "dozens," Apple has also, "shuttered parts of its self-driving car project," according to a report from the New York Times.

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The article cites three different people with knowledge of Apple's moves.

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If you squint hard, you can almost see an Apple Car's headlights and logo. But nope, it's just an iPhone 7 Plus. Credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images

However, to date, Apple has offered no confirmation of any plan to create a car, self-driving or otherwise. Initially, the hope from some was that the future might offer a commercial car as technologically slick and design-friendly as the iPhone. But as tech industry chatter has shifted in recent months toward a focus on self-driving cars from the likes of Uber and Google, the Apple rumors turned into speculation about an automated car from the smartphone giant.

Oddly, Apple's initiatives around CarPlay, its dashboard system for existing cars, has received little attention with regard to the Apple car rumors. But just last year, one of my sources claimed that all the car activity at Apple was actually geared toward supporting existing automakers rather than creating its own car, a process that involved creating a testing vehicle, which may have led to many of the rumors.

Nevertheless, all the speculation will likely continue for some time, as even the most optimistic rumors about a supposed "Apple Car" put its debut at sometime around 2021 (about five years).

In tech industry time, that is an eternity, and essentially means absolutely anythingis possible.

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