David Hanak If you follow the goings-on around Apple and focus on the vicissitudes of Project Titan (aka the Apple Car), events have been swinging like a see-saw over the past two years. At first it looked like Apple was developing an entire car, only to have the entire project completely restructured, ditched, and a massive employee exodus ensued. However, this is changing in recent months, and Apple is succeeding in recruiting new and very capable people from the automotive industry.
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The latest report says that Tesla's former vice president of powertrain research and development is joining Apple. This news does not make much sense in the context of previous events, as Apple should have abandoned the idea of developing a complete car a long time ago. However, if the company were to develop only autonomous control systems that could subsequently be implemented in cars from regular production, it does not make sense to bring an expert on electric car powertrains "on board".
However, Michael Schwekutsch left Tesla last month and, according to foreign sources, is now part of the Apple Special Projects Group, within which work on the "Titan" project is also ongoing. Schwekutsch has a respectable CV and the list of projects he has been involved in is staggering. In some form, he contributed to the development of power units for cars such as the BMW i8, Fiat 500eV, Volvo XC90 or the Porsche 918 Spyder hypersport.
However, this is not the only "renegade" who was supposed to change the color of his jersey in the past weeks. Far more people who worked at Elon Musk's company under the wing of Apple's former vice president for Mac hardware engineering, Doug Field, are reportedly moving from Tesla to Apple. He, together with several of his former subordinates, returned to Apple after several years.
Companies have been transferring employees this way for several years. Elon Musk himself once described Apple as the burial ground of Tesla's talents. Snippets of information in recent months suggest that Apple may be reviving the idea of creating its own full electric car. In connection with this, several new patents have appeared, and the influx of the above-mentioned people is definitely not just that.
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