Apple Continues Hiring Automotive Experts, Possibly for Rumored 'Titan' Car Project

Apple recently made a major automotive hire that hints at the company's continued work on an electric car, reports The Wall Street Journal. The company hired Doug Betts, who previously served as the Senior Vice President of the Chrysler Group, where he was the global head of operations leading product service and quality.

According to Betts' LinkedIn page, he began working at Apple in July. Aside from a role in "Operations," in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are no details on what he is doing at the company.

Betts' LinkedIn profile suggests he made major customer satisfaction improvements and warranty cost reductions during his tenure at Chrysler, with job duties that included quality engineering, field issue problem solving, manufacturing operations, and supplier quality, among other tasks. Prior to working at Chrysler, Betts worked at Nissan, Toyota, and Michelin.

appleautomotivehire
Along with Betts, The Wall Street Journal suggests Apple also recently recruited a researcher, Paul Furgale, with a specialization in autonomous vehicles to join its team of employees working on its car project. The company is said to be seeking out other experts with robotics and machine experience, with Furgale recruiting both students and researchers.

Earlier this year, Apple hired Paul Furgale a well-regarded autonomous vehicle researcher in Switzerland, and has begun recruiting other robotics and machine vision experts to work on a confidential project.

Mr. Furgale had been deputy director of the Autonomous Systems Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, or ETH. Mr. Furgale previously had led a European Commission project called V-Charge that sought to develop self-parking vehicle technology.

News of Apple's car project, code-named "Project Titan," leaked in February, but details on the top secret effort remain scarce. Apple reportedly has hundreds of employees working on developing an electric vehicle and has been recruiting talent from the automotive industry and other car-related fields, poaching employees from companies like Tesla, Ford, and GM. Rumors have thus far disagreed on whether Apple is focusing on self-driving capabilities for the vehicle.

Rumors have suggested Apple is aiming to produce a car by 2020, but because Apple often works on projects that never make it to fruition, it's possible that its car plans could be shelved or delayed in the future if the company is unhappy with its progress.

Popular Stories

iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Less Than Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Thursday July 25, 2024 5:43 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
Apple Intelligence General Feature

Apple Intelligence Now Available in New iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia Developer Betas

Monday July 29, 2024 10:07 am PDT by
Apple is today providing developers with the first betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, with the new software introducing an early version of the Apple Intelligence features. These new betas will be in testing alongside the current iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia 15 betas. Developers can choose whether to opt into the new betas with Apple Intelligence, or stay on the ...
Apple Intelligence General Feature

Report: Apple Intelligence Delayed to iOS 18.1 in October

Sunday July 28, 2024 11:52 am PDT by
Apple Intelligence will miss its initial expected launch date to give Apple more time to fix bugs, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. According to individuals with knowledge about Apple's plans, the company now plans to start rolling out Apple Intelligence in software updates by October, arriving several weeks after the launch of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. This means that Apple...
T Mobile Generic Feature Pink 1

T-Mobile Sued for Breaking Lifetime Price Guarantees

Friday July 26, 2024 2:44 pm PDT by
T-Mobile customers have filed a lawsuit [PDF] against the carrier, alleging that it failed to honor a guarantee not to raise the prices of select cellular plans. The lawsuit, first spotted by Wired, claims that back in 2017, T-Mobile advertised several of its plans with a price lock, but then went on to increase prices starting in May 2024. "T-Mobile ONE customers keep their price until...

Top Rated Comments

AngerDanger Avatar
118 months ago
[LIST=1]
* Apple releases self-driving cars.
* Cars become self aware.
* Cars realize humans are destructive and decide to make a preemptive strike.
* Cars use Maps for navigation and drive themselves into buildings, off bridges, and to random locations.
* Humanity remains safe.
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
theelysium Avatar
118 months ago
Chrysler!?!? Well, the Apple Car won't be reliable. The Apple Car will be as shotty as a Dodge and unimportant as a Chrysler. This does not bode well!
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
robjulo Avatar
118 months ago
They haven't "cracked" TV yet but people really think they are going to mass produce cars?
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannys1 Avatar
118 months ago
Chrysler!?!? Well, the Apple Car won't be reliable. The Apple Car will be as shotty as a Dodge and unimportant as a Chrysler. This does not bode well!
Yeah cos this one guy is responsible for all the cars that were made at Chrysler, even though he didn't even work in design, manufacturing or anything else remotely related to the product itself. But then you can prove anything with facts, I find they tend to cloud my judgement, I prefer to rely on instinct and blind prejudice.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rogifan Avatar
118 months ago
Does anyone really still believe this is all about a suped up CarPlay or infotainment system for existing cars. Jeff Williams says the car is the ultimate mobile experience. Jony Ive hands off day to day duties so he can work on "new ideas and future initiatives". There's no doubt my mind Apple is working on something big here, much bigger than CarPlay. CarPlay is like iTunes on the ROKR.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
luckydcxx Avatar
118 months ago
An Apple car is coming ... Not by 2020 though. There are production delays already.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)