Apple Car Project Loses Three Key Engineers

As Apple gears up to release a fully autonomous vehicle, it is continuing to lose key people who are working on the project, reports Bloomberg. Over the last several weeks, three engineers have departed the company.

Apple’s chief engineer for radar systems, Eric Rogers, left for Joby Aviation, a company working on electric aerial ridesharing. Alex Clarabut, an engineering manager for the battery team, and Stephen Spiteri, a hardware engineering manager, both joined Archer Aviation, a company that is developing an air taxi.

Earlier this month, Apple Car engineering director Michael Schwekutsch left Apple for Archer Aviation as well, and back in September, ‌Apple Car‌ project lead Doug Field left Apple for Ford after three years of heading up ‌Apple Car‌ development.

According to Bloomberg, Apple has lost six members of the project’s management team in 2021 alone, but it has also brought on important new hires like Ulrich Kranz, former CEO of self-driving startup Canoo, and CJ Moore, who worked at Tesla and has expertise in self-driving software.

Apple’s work on an autonomous vehicle has been plagued by managerial shifts, changes in focus, and hiring issues almost since it began. With Field’s departure, Apple brought on Apple Watch chief Kevin Lynch to work on the ‌Apple Car‌, and he is working alongside AI chief John Giannandrea.

Under Lynch’s leadership, the ‌Apple Car‌ project is moving forward with the ambitious aim of producing an autonomous electric vehicle that does not require human intervention, which no other car manufacturer has been able to achieve.

Apple is hoping to release a self-driving car by 2025, but the timeline may ultimately prove to be too aggressive.