Apple’s hire of another auto industry insider, Desi Ujkashevic, a 31-year Ford Motor Co. veteran, has the car and tech industries buzzing about “Apple Car” again.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
Ujkashevic is the highest-profile move to Apple under the division’s current leader, Kevin Lynch. It’s the surest sign in several months that Apple is pushing ahead with its vehicle efforts, undeterred by a series of setbacks.
The project has been in flux for more than a year amid several executive departures, most notably that of Doug Field, who ran the operation prior to leaving in September… Field evidently decided trying to turn Ford into an electric-vehicle powerhouse would be a more worthwhile task than attempting to launch Apple’s next big thing. He was the fourth executive to run and then leave the vehicle program in a six-year period.
So Apple put a known commodity in charge: Lynch, who had joined from Adobe Inc. in 2013 and led development of the Apple Watch’s software and health features… A smartwatch is a complicated product, but it’s far from as complex as a car. Apple can only succeed if it brings in expertise from the auto world — individuals like Ujkashevic who actually know something about shipping a vehicle.
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully for “Apple Car,” the sixteenth time is the charm.
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