New in OS X: Get MacRumors Push Notifications on your Mac

Resubscribe Now Close

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

Monday July 20, 2015 3:56 pm PDT by Juli Clover
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.

Related Roundup: Apple Car
[ 123 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Avatar
AngerDanger
42 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.
Rating: 31 Votes
Avatar
theelysium
42 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!
Rating: 16 Votes
Avatar
robjulo
42 months ago
They haven't "cracked" TV yet but people really think they are going to mass produce cars?
Rating: 14 Votes
Avatar
dannys1
42 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.
Rating: 13 Votes
Avatar
Rogifan
42 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.
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
luckydcxx
42 months ago
An Apple car is coming ... Not by 2020 though. There are production delays already.
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
DudeDad
42 months ago
Sadly, you cannot drive the car unless you have an iPhone nearby.....just like the Watch
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
dannys1
42 months ago
I thought last week we decided all this car business was just Apple hiring street view mappers?
Rating: 4 Votes
Avatar
gugy
42 months ago
This car manufacturing stuff reminds me people saying Apple for sure would make a television set. The TV rumor is older than 10 years and so far nothing has happened.
I see the car rumor going the same route. I just don't see Apple moving into that either. Like TV, they better off creating the tech to use in partnership of car manufacturers than creating a car itself.
Rating: 4 Votes
Avatar
AustinIllini
42 months ago
Maybe Apple should focus on making their watch right.

Hopefully the car doesn't look like previous speculated renders or like Google's garbage car.
Rating: 3 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]