There have been conflicting reports in recent months as to whether Apple is working on its own automated car, but today’s news of a new Tesla hire could swing in its favor.
Apple has poached Steve MacManus, former Tesla executive, to work for the company, according to reports by Bloomberg.
MacManus worked for Tesla on car exteriors and interiors, partly responsible for some of Tesla’s most iconic features we all love today.
The engineer joined Tesla back in 2015 and has previously worked for car companies such as Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley Motors, and Aston Martin.
According to MacManus’ LinkedIn, he is now employed as a Senior Direct at Apple.
Although it would make sense for MacManus to join Apple to work on its car project, the report in Bloomberg suggests that he could be working on other design projects at Apple.
Now Jony Ive is out of the picture, Apple is enlisting design guidance from other parties.
Apple is working on a self-driving electric vehicle, according to some reports, though whether that involves Apple launching its own vehicle or just the software to power other vehicles remains to be seen.
Rumors have suggested that Apple had scrapped its plans for a physical car, but Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the company could be ready to release it by 2023 to 2025.
Both Apple and Tesla are involved in a ‘hiring war’ with both companies poaching each other’s staff to work on new projects.
Apple has hired a bunch of executives in recent years including Michael Schwekutsch, who worked on Tesla drive systems, and Doug Field, the company’s chief vehicle engineer.
It will be interesting to see how these hires play out.
What are your thoughts? Are you looking forward to Apple Car? Do you believe the project is actually happening? Let us know on Twitter using @AppleMagazine.