Philip Houska Apple is ramping up its initiative to enter the automotive market and once again expanding its secretive team. Here comes Dan Dodge, former head of BlackBerry's automotive software division. Along with Bob Mansfield, who took the helm of Project "Titan", and his team will reportedly deal with self-driving technology. The news was brought by Mark Gurman from Bloomberg.
Dan Dodge is no newcomer to this field. He founded and headed the company QNX, which specialized in the development of operating systems and was bought by BlackBerry in 2010. So this is another very interesting name that Apple got for its secret car project.
Although he joined Apple at the beginning of the year, this native Canadian has only now started to be talked about. The reason may be that the experienced Mansfield took over the leadership of the car project and made some strategic changes. The most fundamental one should be prioritizing the development of an autonomous system instead of creating an electric car as such. Dodge and its rich experience with operating systems could certainly help such a scenario. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on the situation.
Building self-driving (autonomous) technology would open a new lucrative door for Apple. The company could establish cooperation with other automobile companies, to whom it would offer its system. Another option is to buy these cars, which in turn would create space for creating your own car.
Based on the testimony of familiar sources, Apple does not want to abandon the creation of its first ever electric car. To date, Cook's company has hundreds of not only design engineers under its wings, whom Apple does not employ unnecessarily. You need a big personality Chris Porrit, former Tesla engineer.
A stronger focus on the autonomous system is also confirmed by the opening of a research and development center right next to the QNX headquarters in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata. People who could provide Apple with their specific automotive knowledge are concentrated in this area.
