Apple's latest Tesla hire may point to powertrain for full-scale 'Apple Car'
Signaling that it's continuing work on a full-fledged electric car, or at least a platform, Apple has reportedly hired Tesla's engineering VP in charge of powertrains Michael Schwekutsch.
Schwekutsch left Tesla earlier this month and is now a part of Apple's Special Projects Group, Electrek sources said. The group is home to some of Apple's most clandestine work, including "Project Titan," the self-driving car effort.
The executive has an extensive history in powertrain development. His resume lists related engineering firms like BorgWarner and GKN Driveline, and output such as electric and hybrid powertrains for the BMW i8, Fiat 500eV, Volvo XC90, and Porsche 918 Spyder.
Apple is allegedly hiring "several other" Tesla workers alongside Schwekutsch, who should serve under Doug Field -- once a VP of Mac hardware engineering at Apple, but who spent almost five years at Tesla before returning to Apple to replace former project lead Steve Zadesky.
The project was hit with two rounds of layoffs earlier this year. Revived hiring could mean Apple has settled on a new direction -- Apple and Tesla have regularly poached from each others' labor pools, however, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk even calling Apple the "Tesla graveyard."
Project Titan is thought to have begun with an Apple-designed car in mind, but at one stage scaled back to platform development and testing, with rumors that it would only create technology for adoption by existing automakers or ridesharing services.
In recent months signs have mounted that the company could be inching back into car design. Ongoing efforts in the space include multiple patents and patent applications such as technology for power transfer systems, as well as new recruits like former Tesla car designer Andrew Kim.
Schwekutsch left Tesla earlier this month and is now a part of Apple's Special Projects Group, Electrek sources said. The group is home to some of Apple's most clandestine work, including "Project Titan," the self-driving car effort.
The executive has an extensive history in powertrain development. His resume lists related engineering firms like BorgWarner and GKN Driveline, and output such as electric and hybrid powertrains for the BMW i8, Fiat 500eV, Volvo XC90, and Porsche 918 Spyder.
Apple is allegedly hiring "several other" Tesla workers alongside Schwekutsch, who should serve under Doug Field -- once a VP of Mac hardware engineering at Apple, but who spent almost five years at Tesla before returning to Apple to replace former project lead Steve Zadesky.
The project was hit with two rounds of layoffs earlier this year. Revived hiring could mean Apple has settled on a new direction -- Apple and Tesla have regularly poached from each others' labor pools, however, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk even calling Apple the "Tesla graveyard."
Project Titan is thought to have begun with an Apple-designed car in mind, but at one stage scaled back to platform development and testing, with rumors that it would only create technology for adoption by existing automakers or ridesharing services.
In recent months signs have mounted that the company could be inching back into car design. Ongoing efforts in the space include multiple patents and patent applications such as technology for power transfer systems, as well as new recruits like former Tesla car designer Andrew Kim.
Comments
wants to build powertrain for an autonomous car
You have a link to that?
YES!!! I can't wait!
I absolutely LOVE seeing ATMs and promotional screens displaying the Windows desktop. To have this in my car?!? Heaven!
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/07/daimler-ceo-tesla-mercedes-talking-about-working-together-again.html
It’s the one thing you shouldn't have when building an electric car.
Indeed. This seems the signal that Apple couldn’t find a parther within its Autopilot/software ambition, and just (again?) tries to start building a carframe - in a mere “You have to start anywhere, don’t you ?”-approach
Soon to find itself as Alice lost in carmakers' Wonderland of bodywork design/philosophy, production, outsourcing, provisioning, assemblage, plant design, upscaling production, dealer networks, parts distribution, aftersales-service, service and repairmen, education etc.
This overly complex business requires understanding and refinement of carmakers’ assembly and provisioning networks as they evolved over the last 100 years.
Successful carmakers made that happen, and evolved with it, or perished.
This is a world far more complex for newcomers to enter, let alone survive.
Far more complicated and less rewarding/profitable than iDevice business (that has its own, very different provisioning networks and laws) - making me wonder whether Apple realizes what it actually wants to achieve and at what price.
I am afraid Tim expects to be the Champion of Everything (Media, News, Fashion, Health, Radio, Music Streaming, Video content - all very different expertise area's) but ends up as the culprit of epic diversification failure.
Better limit ambitions to a smaller, more realistic scale - starting with a PowerMat (...)
For myself, I would predict:
Apple will not sell a car. Instead, Apple will sell transportation as a service. Their transportation service will utilize their own fleet of self-driving electric vehicles.
A few years ago, people often reacted to this prediction by saying that Apple makes money by selling products to consumers, not by selling services. I think it's pretty clear now how insightful that line of reasoning wasn't. Apple execs are beating the service drum pretty hard these days. The idea of Apple preferring to sell a subscription service rather than hardware is not as alien now.
Furthermore, I think that as we discover how overly optimistic the Waymo/Tesla-fueled predictions were about the timeline for achieving 'full autonomy,' it becomes clear that selling a self-driving car to consumers will not be feasible for the foreseeable future.
What is likely to be feasible is a vehicle that is very adept at operating within a clearly defined space. Not just geo-fenced, but restricted to specific routes that it can handle.
I can imagine a service that mixes human-driven and autonomous vehicles, depending on the route requested.
My intuition was at the time that Apple thinks that only hybrid cars are an option, and that they aim at that.
This of course will be a complete failure, but current news about this Titanic project does not take this worry away.
I also fear Apple pulls a ‘Duke Nukem Forever’ by endlessly delaying and reevaluating its options while the rest of the world (Tesla) storms on.