Apple Hires Former Tesla Engineering VP With Expertise in Car Interiors

Apple recently hired Steve MacManus, a former Tesla executive in charge of engineering for car exteriors and interiors, reports Bloomberg.

MacManus joined Tesla at 2015 and has also worked at Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley Motors, and Aston Martin. According to his LinkedIn profile, MacManus is now a "Senior Director" at Apple, with no additional information provided.

While his interior design skills are applicable to Apple's car team, Bloomberg believes he could also be working on other projects at Apple, beyond the development of a car. Apple is widely believed to be working on a self-driving electric vehicle project, though given the myriad rumors about it over the years, it continues to be unclear what Apple's ultimate goal is.

For some time, rumors suggested Apple had shelved plans for a physical car and was instead focusing on software, but last year, there were again hints that Apple is planning on designing its own vehicle, which Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said could launch in 2023 to 2025.

Apple and Tesla regularly hire each other's employees, and have been embroiled in hiring wars for years now. Apple in the last year has hired former Tesla drive systems vice president Michael Schwekutsch and former Tesla chief vehicle engineer Doug Field.