Apple's Kevin Lynch tapped to take over leadership of 'Apple Car' project

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
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Apple software executive Kevin Lynch has reportedly taken over the company's "Apple Car" project after its previous manager departed for Ford.

Credit: Apple
Credit: Apple


Lynch, a veteran of Adobe who joined Apple to work on the company's Apple Watch and health initiatives, will replace Doug Field as the executive in charge of the company's self-driving car project, Bloomberg reported Thursday. The move comes just a few days after news broke that Ford had poached Field.

Although known for working on Apple's health-related projects, Lynch was transferred to the company's automotive initiative earlier in the summer. Prior to the transfer, Lynch led development of features like the iOS Health app and ResearchKit. Before that, he helped create watchOS.

The change marks only the latest shake-up for Apple's self-driving car initiative, which is internally codenamed "Project Titan." The project has seen its fair share of restructurings, layoffs, and key personnel departures since its inception sometime in 2014.

Lynch's appointment to head the project suggests that much of the work still focuses on underlying autonomous systems and self-driving car software, rather than the physical design of a vehicle. However, many reports in 2020 and 2021 indicate that Apple's end goal may be a production car.

Apple is reportedly in talks with Korean electric vehicle component makers, and is currently testing self-driving vehicles on public California roads.

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    byronlbyronl Posts: 372member
    his a ui and human experience guy. apple wants to create the best possible user experience a car can have.
    i’m sure they can do that. i’m sure they can create a beautiful car inside and out with an amazing user experience. i’m skeptical of the other aspects of a car tho (self driving, powertrain tech, manufacturing etc)
    KTRwatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 16
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,608member
    Another software guy, former Google exec and current Apple AI and machine learning VP John Giannandrea, is overseeing the entire project while Lynch will handle day-to-day. So yeah, definitely no indication that they're focusing on hardware and building a car.  
    edited September 2021 JWSC
  • Reply 3 of 16
    JWSCJWSC Posts: 1,203member
    gatorguy said:
    Another software guy, former Google exec and current Apple AI and machine learning VP John Giannandrea, is overseeing the entire project while Lynch will handle day-to-day. So yeah, definitely no indication that they're focusing on hardware and building a car.  
    Didn’t Jobs say in order to do great software you need your own hardware?  Paraphrasing, but it went something like that.
    patchythepiratebyronlGeorgeBMacwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 16
    canukstormcanukstorm Posts: 2,732member
    gatorguy said:
    Another software guy, former Google exec and current Apple AI and machine learning VP John Giannandrea, is overseeing the entire project while Lynch will handle day-to-day. So yeah, definitely no indication that they're focusing on hardware and building a car.  
    He's actually a former Adobe exec
  • Reply 5 of 16
    canukstormcanukstorm Posts: 2,732member
    JWSC said:
    gatorguy said:
    Another software guy, former Google exec and current Apple AI and machine learning VP John Giannandrea, is overseeing the entire project while Lynch will handle day-to-day. So yeah, definitely no indication that they're focusing on hardware and building a car.  
    Didn’t Jobs say in order to do great software you need your own hardware?  Paraphrasing, but it went something like that.
    Alan Kay, who used to work at Apple, said that.  Jobs was quoting him.
    JWSCpatchythepiratebyronlrundhvidwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 16
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,531member
    Meanwhile, Apple will be hiring Jack Donaghy to be Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming .
    rundhvidmichelb76
  • Reply 7 of 16
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 13,068member
    gatorguy said:
    Another software guy, former Google exec and current Apple AI and machine learning VP John Giannandrea, is overseeing the entire project while Lynch will handle day-to-day. So yeah, definitely no indication that they're focusing on hardware and building a car.  
    He's actually a former Adobe exec
    Lynch is former Adobe guy, but Giannandrea is a former Google guy.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 16
    byronlbyronl Posts: 372member
    gatorguy said:
    Another software guy, former Google exec and current Apple AI and machine learning VP John Giannandrea, is overseeing the entire project while Lynch will handle day-to-day. So yeah, definitely no indication that they're focusing on hardware and building a car.  
    i see kevin mostly as a user experience guy. that’s what apple wants to do. revolutionize the car experience
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 16
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,608member
    gatorguy said:
    Another software guy, former Google exec and current Apple AI and machine learning VP John Giannandrea, is overseeing the entire project while Lynch will handle day-to-day. So yeah, definitely no indication that they're focusing on hardware and building a car.  
    He's actually a former Adobe exec
    Are you thinking of someone else perhaps? Giannandrea joined Apple in 2018 after his 8-year tenure at Google where he served as the head of Machine Learning.

    EDIT: I notice StrangeDays already corrected you. 
    edited September 2021
  • Reply 10 of 16
    waveparticlewaveparticle Posts: 1,497member
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-09/ford-will-cease-manufacturing-in-india-take-2-billion-charge
  • Reply 11 of 16
    KTRKTR Posts: 280member
    gatorguy said:
    Another software guy, former Google exec and current Apple AI and machine learning VP John Giannandrea, is overseeing the entire project while Lynch will handle day-to-day. So yeah, definitely no indication that they're focusing on hardware and building a car.  
    Maybe they already have the car built?
  • Reply 12 of 16
    michelb76michelb76 Posts: 682member
    I keep thinking that the ‘car’ project is just one of apple’s many experiments to find/figure out a product but this one is hard to keep invisible because they need more physical space for it. So nobody really knows what it is but you get these glimpses. It must be extremely frustrating that they can’t contain it as they did with the smaller hardware.
    byronlwatto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 16
    byronlbyronl Posts: 372member
    KTR said:
    gatorguy said:
    Another software guy, former Google exec and current Apple AI and machine learning VP John Giannandrea, is overseeing the entire project while Lynch will handle day-to-day. So yeah, definitely no indication that they're focusing on hardware and building a car.  
    Maybe they already have the car built?
    yea but they still need car engineers to 
    1) advance the tech further for the future
    and especially b) for the manufacturing! prototypes are easy, production is hard -elon musk
    and yes i know they will probably partner with a manufacturer to make a car but apple still has great control over the tooling and robots and techniques etc
    JWSC
  • Reply 14 of 16
    k2kwk2kw Posts: 2,077member
    byronl said:
    KTR said:
    gatorguy said:
    Another software guy, former Google exec and current Apple AI and machine learning VP John Giannandrea, is overseeing the entire project while Lynch will handle day-to-day. So yeah, definitely no indication that they're focusing on hardware and building a car.  
    Maybe they already have the car built?
    yea but they still need car engineers to 
    1) advance the tech further for the future
    and especially b) for the manufacturing! prototypes are easy, production is hard -elon musk
    and yes i know they will probably partner with a manufacturer to make a car but apple still has great control over the tooling and robots and techniques etc
    This is Cook’s billion dollar boondoggle.  Luckily Apple makes tens of Billions and can afford to waste the money.

    Sounds like Field got tired of Cooks docking around and went off to build an actual product. I 
  • Reply 15 of 16
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    Both Apple Watch and the Health and Research Apps made incredible strides under Kevin Lynch.

    To me, his presentations reminded me of Steve's:  Neither were polished and professional.  But their (justified) pride in their products made their presentations just soar to new heights.   Because, neither was presenting a product:   they were showing off their pride & joy.

    Personally, for me, I figure the world has enough cars.  This guy is one of the greats.  I wish he would stay with Apple Watch and health.  The world would be better off.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 16
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 13,068member
    k2kw said:
    byronl said:
    KTR said:
    gatorguy said:
    Another software guy, former Google exec and current Apple AI and machine learning VP John Giannandrea, is overseeing the entire project while Lynch will handle day-to-day. So yeah, definitely no indication that they're focusing on hardware and building a car.  
    Maybe they already have the car built?
    yea but they still need car engineers to 
    1) advance the tech further for the future
    and especially b) for the manufacturing! prototypes are easy, production is hard -elon musk
    and yes i know they will probably partner with a manufacturer to make a car but apple still has great control over the tooling and robots and techniques etc
    This is Cook’s billion dollar boondoggle.  Luckily Apple makes tens of Billions and can afford to waste the money.

    Sounds like Field got tired of Cooks docking around and went off to build an actual product. I 
    Lol some of you inject so much of your creative fiction to what you read. 

    Alternative theory: Ford offered him a shit-ton of money and he decided that would be better for him & his. Who knows? Nobody here.
    watto_cobra
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