“Apple Inc. has hired a senior engineer from electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc., according to a LinkedIn posting, as part of Apple’s effort to build a team of experts in automated driving,” Paul Lienert and Julia Love report for Reuters.
“A LinkedIn profile for Jamie Carlson shows that he has left Tesla and moved to Apple. At least six others with experience developing self-driving technology and systems have joined Apple, according to their LinkedIn profiles,” Lienert and Love report. “Since January, Apple has hired Megan McClain, a former Volkswagen AG engineer with expertise in automated driving, and Vinay Palakkode, a graduate researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, a hub of automated driving research. In August, Apple hired Xianqiao Tong, an engineer who developed computer vision software for driver assistance systems at microchip maker Nvidia Corp.”
Lienert and Love report, “Other Apple hires since September 2014 with similar experience have worked at automakers BMW AG, Volkswagen and Ford Motor Co., automotive suppliers Delphi Automotive, Robert Bosch GmbH and TRW, now a part of ZF Friedrichshafen AG, according to their LinkedIn profiles.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Vehicle makers’ unease grows with each passing day.
That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains. — Steve Jobs, 1998
SEE ALSO:
Apple Car development proceeds apace – July 27, 2015
Apple hires veteran Fiat Chrysler auto industry executive – July 20, 2015
What’s up with Carl Icahn’s sudden obsession with the Apple Car? – May 18, 2015
Survey: 77% of hybrid or electric vehicle owners would likely buy an Apple Car – May 13, 2015
Apple Car: Forget ‘electric,’ think hydrogen fuel cells – February 20, 2015
Apple working with Intelligent Energy on fuel cell technology for mobile devices, sources say – July 14, 2014
North Carolina regulators approve Apple’s 4.8-megawatt fuel cell facility at Maiden data center – May 23, 2012
New aerial images of Apple’s planned NC fuel cell, solar farms published – April 7, 2012
Apple’s massive fuel cell energy project to be largest in the U.S. – April 4, 2012
Apple patent application reveals next-gen fuel cell powered Macs and iOS devices – December 22, 2011
Apple patent app details highly-advanced hydrogen fuel cells to power portable devices – October 20, 2011
Much of this excellent article also applies to Apple’s efforts: http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/06/how-tesla-will-change-your-life.html
A second excellent insight came to me in a comment on this site. Someone who said that if they were Apple they’d never let a person buy an Apple Car. Why? Because their suggestion was a centrally directed Apple taxi service where you register your need for a car and it appears at your door. They suggested Apple roll it out city by city.
I browsed the “Wait But Why” site and the intro material looks very promising. I plan to read a couple of the entries to see if the writing appeals to me. I am hoping that the articles include solid factual support combined with open-minded, unbiased analysis leading to interesting and enlightening conclusions.
Thanks, NB.
The hires listed are all notable professionals with achievements in the auto and computer fields. I wonder how many people they’ve hired into Project Titan that are not notable, and flown under the radar. Just how big is this project group i wonder.
Good take, MDN. Simplicity does take a lot of thinking and hard work, in Science and commerce. Re-imagining personal transport for the 21st century is a task only Apple with its vast funds, resources and design talent could take on.
That’s why they have such a good streaming television service. Right?
Every time I think of Titan, I think of the flame haired anti-Hero from the movie ‘MegaMind’ and just cringe. Perhaps Tim Cook didn’t see that movie and relate to the name, like me.
Oh yeah, right. That was a Dreamworks movie and Tim probably only watches Pixar films.
Apple has already flopped in watches, so now desperate for another failure Tim “Apple Ballmer” Cook wants to move on to cars? This guy is in a class of stupidity all by himself. Decades from now, people will look back on this as Steve Job’s greatest mistake. Hopefully the board wisens up, and fires Cook and his little lapdog Ive too.
Hope the software for this car works better than the apple email IMAP fail, dns fail, iPhoto fail, iTunes store fail, and sapphire screen factory fail.