Apple has hired a former engineer from Tesla, Christopher “CJ” Moore, for its “Project Titan” team working on the development of autonomous vehicles, Bloomberg News reports, citing “people with knowledge of the matter.”
Mark Gurman and Dana Hull for Bloomberg News:
Moore is working on the effort’s software, reporting to Stuart Bowers, another former Tesla executive who joined Apple at the end of last year. Bowers had led Tesla’s Autopilot team before departing in mid-2019.
At Tesla, Moore implied that Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk had overstated the capabilities of the Autopilot software. Earlier this year, California Department of Motor Vehicles officials interviewed Moore as part of investigations into the self-driving software. The department asked Moore about Musk claiming that Teslas would be capable of fully autonomous driving this year.
Moore signaled in response that Musk’s statements didn’t “match engineering reality,” according to a DMV memo summarizing the conversation. For many years, Musk has said he believes Tesla is close to releasing so-called Level 5 autonomy features, which would mean the cars can operate without human intervention. The current system, known as Level 2, requires drivers to keep their hands on the wheel.
MacDailyNews Take: Tesla drivers, how much do you trust autopilot?
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