Apple hires former Tesla engineer to bolster its self-driving car project

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
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Apple has hired a former Tesla engineer to work on software for its secretive "Apple Car" project, according to a new report.

Credit: AppleInsider
Credit: AppleInsider


The Cupertino tech giant has hired Christopher "CJ" Moore to work on Apple's autonomous driving software, Bloomberg has reported. Moore will report to Stuart Bowers, another former Tesla executive who now works at Apple.

Moore will be joining one of the most shadowy departments at Apple -- the company has never publicly acknowledged its vehicle plans. Despite that, there have been a number of reports about the so-called "Project Titan," including many detailing its high turnover and periodic restructurings.

The former Tesla engineer drew controversy earlier in 2021 for remarks about the automaker's Autopilot feature. Specifically, Moore implied that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had overstated Autopilot's capabilities.

In recent months, a lawsuit filed by the estate of a man who died in a car crash while it was in Autopilot mode sought to call Moore as a witness. Legal documents related to the case indicate that Moore left Tesla in October.

Moore will join a growing pool of former Tesla engineers and executives who now work at Apple. In addition to Bowers, Apple now has former Tesla drive train chief Michael Schwekutsch and interiors lead Steve MacManus working on its car project.

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 40
    mobirdmobird Posts: 753member
    "growing pool of former Tesla engineers" AKA Retreads :*... 
    quench
  • Reply 2 of 40
    eriamjheriamjh Posts: 1,642member
    Everybody can quit a job for more money.
    ravnorodom
  • Reply 3 of 40
    BeatsBeats Posts: 3,073member
    Why is everyone moving the goalposts? Before they laughed at Apple because “engineers wouldn’t work for Apple even if they paid them more!”

    Now that they work for Apple they’re “retreads”. 
    edited November 2021 genovellelolliverviclauyycAlex_Vmichelb76
  • Reply 4 of 40
    slow n easyslow n easy Posts: 323member
    It is very distressing how litigious the U.S. is. I just feel very strongly that we should take personal responsibility. The crash was not the fault of the car. It was the fault of the driver. I still, after all of these years, think about the woman who sued McDonald’s because she spilled hot coffee on her lap. I of course believe that people should have the right to sue, but people take it way to far. If people are trespassing on my property without my consent, they should not be allowed to sue me for example.
    byronlviclauyyc
  • Reply 5 of 40
    byronlbyronl Posts: 362member
    slow n easy said:
    It is very distressing how litigious the U.S. is. I just feel very strongly that we should take personal responsibility. The crash was not the fault of the car. It was the fault of the driver. I still, after all of these years, think about the woman who sued McDonald’s because she spilled hot coffee on her lap. I of course believe that people should have the right to sue, but people take it way to far. If people are trespassing on my property without my consent, they should not be allowed to sue me for example.
    thank you!
  • Reply 6 of 40
    byronlbyronl Posts: 362member
    apple is hiring but tesla is hiring more. they literally increased their AI job applicants by 100x after their (mind blowing) AI day. and they have exponentially more real world car driving data than everyone else. i really don’t know how apple will compete in the self driving technology race.
     but they’ll probably figure something out. they hired sandy munro so that was a great move. 
    i don’t know how they’ll compete in terms of self driving tech, manufacturing tech, etc but i know they will create a beautiful car with an amazing user experience.
    viclauyyc
  • Reply 7 of 40
    byronlbyronl Posts: 362member
    Beats said:
    Why is everyone moving the goalposts? Before they laughed at Apple because “engineers wouldn’t work for Apple even if they paid them more!”

    Now that they work for Apple they’re “retreads”. 
    who said that engineers wouldn’t work for apple lmaoo
     i’ve never seen anyone say that
  • Reply 8 of 40
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,877member
    It is very distressing how litigious the U.S. is. I just feel very strongly that we should take personal responsibility. The crash was not the fault of the car. It was the fault of the driver. I still, after all of these years, think about the woman who sued McDonald’s because she spilled hot coffee on her lap. I of course believe that people should have the right to sue, but people take it way to far. If people are trespassing on my property without my consent, they should not be allowed to sue me for example.
    You should learn more about the hot coffee facts, and not the corporate PR campaign aimed at tort reform. The coffee was extremely hot and the cup flimsy - she required hospitalization and skin grafts for the third degree burns. The damages were punitive because it turned out McDonald’s had 700 prior burn victims but never changed their protocol or cup materials to make them safer. Now they have. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants

    https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/hot-coffee/umc.cmc.13rcmr2b03g6nrvdqthzn9hxj

    tmayClassicGeekJWSClolliverelijahghammeroftruthAlex_Vapplguymuthuk_vanalingambeowulfschmidt
  • Reply 9 of 40
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,877member
    byronl said:
    apple is hiring but tesla is hiring more. they literally increased their AI job applicants by 100x after their (mind blowing) AI day. and they have exponentially more real world car driving data than everyone else. i really don’t know how apple will compete in the self driving technology race.
    And yet, reports from owners are it is quite dumb. Like Siri dumb. Like you will die or kill people dumb. These are such early days that no one has a lock on the market. 

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/03/cars/tesla-full-self-driving-fsd/index.html
    lollivertmayAlex_VRonnnieO
  • Reply 10 of 40
    danoxdanox Posts: 2,849member
    mobird said:
    "growing pool of former Tesla engineers" AKA Retreads :*... 
    Don’t want to move to Texas…..
    Alex_V
  • Reply 11 of 40
    danoxdanox Posts: 2,849member
    byronl said:
    apple is hiring but tesla is hiring more. they literally increased their AI job applicants by 100x after their (mind blowing) AI day. and they have exponentially more real world car driving data than everyone else. i really don’t know how apple will compete in the self driving technology race.
     but they’ll probably figure something out. they hired sandy munro so that was a great move. 
    i don’t know how they’ll compete in terms of self driving tech, manufacturing tech, etc but i know they will create a beautiful car with an amazing user experience.
    Baller, Palm and Intel said the same about previous projects, only a few insiders at Apple know for sure what Apple is actually working on, and most probably only know a small piece at that.
    lolliverAlex_Vqwerty52
  • Reply 12 of 40
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member
    slow n easy said:
    It is very distressing how litigious the U.S. is. I just feel very strongly that we should take personal responsibility. The crash was not the fault of the car. It was the fault of the driver. I still, after all of these years, think about the woman who sued McDonald’s because she spilled hot coffee on her lap. I of course believe that people should have the right to sue, but people take it way to far. If people are trespassing on my property without my consent, they should not be allowed to sue me for example.
    The difference is if the company states a capability that does not exist and your family member dies using it in the manner they proclaimed.  Then the company is responsible. 
    lollivertmay
  • Reply 13 of 40
    byronlbyronl Posts: 362member
    byronl said:
    apple is hiring but tesla is hiring more. they literally increased their AI job applicants by 100x after their (mind blowing) AI day. and they have exponentially more real world car driving data than everyone else. i really don’t know how apple will compete in the self driving technology race.
    And yet, reports from owners are it is quite dumb. Like Siri dumb. Like you will die or kill people dumb. These are such early days that no one has a lock on the market. 

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/03/cars/tesla-full-self-driving-fsd/index.html

    that's not true at all. tesla does have a lock. let me explain why.
    tesla is using a different method than everyone else. waymo, cruise, apple, volkswagen, ford and others are using lidar and hd, 3d, human-annotated maps. that's fine but it's VERY expensive to scale. these companies have only made these maps for small cities and a small amount of big highways. you have to pay people to annotate and clean up those maps, and keep them UPDATED as everything changes, for eternity. good luck doing that for a whole country or the whole WORLD. i should add that lidars are expensive (a waymo car costs like 400k$, partly because of the multiple lidars it requires). i should also add that these companies have hit a local maximum since ~2019. https://www.businessinsider.com/cruise-automation-reportedly-struggling-refine-self-driving-tech-2019-6

    tesla uses a different approach. it only uses cameras for self driving, it uses AI computer vision to do it. that approach is better because it's cheaper and a LOT more scalable. some other companies are using this approach too (such as mobileye) but AI needs data. the most data and highest quality data will win. and tesla has that, so they are able to train their AI like no one else. not only that but their data increases exponentially, and others are falling further behind instead of catching up. another big part is their amazing dojo supercomputer. the most powerful AI supercomputer in the world, #5 overall. https://cleantechnica.com/2021/08/22/teslas-dojo-supercomputer-breaks-all-established-industry-standards-cleantechnica-deep-dive-part-1/

    the article seems to ignore the "beta" part for the most part, and acts like average consumers are using the software package right now. this is not the case. check out dirty tesla or ai drivr on youtube to see fsd beta in action. it's really great, the article is definitely exaggerating. and the rate of improvement from about a year ago when it was first released is astonishing.
    if you wanna learn more i would recommend watching tesla's AI day, at least the part about self driving. it was one of the most impressive tech events i've ever watched. you will definitely love it if you are a tech fan
    dr know it all on youtube is also great to understand tesla's big advantage.
    edited November 2021 JWSCelijahgAlex_V
  • Reply 14 of 40
    byronlbyronl Posts: 362member
    danox said:
    byronl said:
    apple is hiring but tesla is hiring more. they literally increased their AI job applicants by 100x after their (mind blowing) AI day. and they have exponentially more real world car driving data than everyone else. i really don’t know how apple will compete in the self driving technology race.
     but they’ll probably figure something out. they hired sandy munro so that was a great move. 
    i don’t know how they’ll compete in terms of self driving tech, manufacturing tech, etc but i know they will create a beautiful car with an amazing user experience.
    Baller, Palm and Intel said the same about previous projects, only a few insiders at Apple know for sure what Apple is actually working on, and most probably only know a small piece at that.

    are you actually equating tesla to palm and balmer? tesla is the apple of the automotive world, nokia and palm are vw, ford, gm, etc. android is the chinese automakers. check out my comment above
    elijahg
  • Reply 15 of 40
    byronlbyronl Posts: 362member
    genovelle said:
    slow n easy said:
    It is very distressing how litigious the U.S. is. I just feel very strongly that we should take personal responsibility. The crash was not the fault of the car. It was the fault of the driver. I still, after all of these years, think about the woman who sued McDonald’s because she spilled hot coffee on her lap. I of course believe that people should have the right to sue, but people take it way to far. If people are trespassing on my property without my consent, they should not be allowed to sue me for example.
    The difference is if the company states a capability that does not exist and your family member dies using it in the manner they proclaimed.  Then the company is responsible. 

    tesla never did this tho...
    elijahg
  • Reply 16 of 40
    dk49dk49 Posts: 267member
    byronl said:
    apple is hiring but tesla is hiring more. they literally increased their AI job applicants by 100x after their (mind blowing) AI day. and they have exponentially more real world car driving data than everyone else. i really don’t know how apple will compete in the self driving technology race.
     but they’ll probably figure something out. they hired sandy munro so that was a great move. 
    i don’t know how they’ll compete in terms of self driving tech, manufacturing tech, etc but i know they will create a beautiful car with an amazing user experience.
    When did Apple hire Sandy Munro? 
  • Reply 17 of 40
    byronlbyronl Posts: 362member
    dk49 said:
    byronl said:
    apple is hiring but tesla is hiring more. they literally increased their AI job applicants by 100x after their (mind blowing) AI day. and they have exponentially more real world car driving data than everyone else. i really don’t know how apple will compete in the self driving technology race.
     but they’ll probably figure something out. they hired sandy munro so that was a great move. 
    i don’t know how they’ll compete in terms of self driving tech, manufacturing tech, etc but i know they will create a beautiful car with an amazing user experience.
    When did Apple hire Sandy Munro? 

    sorry to exactly "hire" as an employ but hire his company for help.
    he got all anxious when asked about the apple car and refused to talk about that.
    in another livestream q&a he got asked about apple car and he said something like "nda, next!"

    GG1
  • Reply 18 of 40
    oneof52oneof52 Posts: 113member
    slow n easy said:
    It is very distressing how litigious the U.S. is. I just feel very strongly that we should take personal responsibility. The crash was not the fault of the car. It was the fault of the driver. I still, after all of these years, think about the woman who sued McDonald’s because she spilled hot coffee on her lap. I of course believe that people should have the right to sue, but people take it way to far. If people are trespassing on my property without my consent, they should not be allowed to sue me for example.
    I'm a lawyer. I have studied that case. The public does not have all the facts if they are relying on news reports. 
    beowulfschmidt
  • Reply 19 of 40
    viclauyycviclauyyc Posts: 849member
    StrangeDays said:
    It is very distressing how litigious the U.S. is. I just feel very strongly that we should take personal responsibility. The crash was not the fault of the car. It was the fault of the driver. I still, after all of these years, think about the woman who sued McDonald’s because she spilled hot coffee on her lap. I of course believe that people should have the right to sue, but people take it way to far. If people are trespassing on my property without my consent, they should not be allowed to sue me for example.
    You should learn more about the hot coffee facts, and not the corporate PR campaign aimed at tort reform. The coffee was extremely hot and the cup flimsy - she required hospitalization and skin grafts for the third degree burns. The damages were punitive because it turned out McDonald’s had 700 prior burn victims but never changed their protocol or cup materials to make them safer. Now they have. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants

    https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/hot-coffee/umc.cmc.13rcmr2b03g6nrvdqthzn9hxj

    So hot coffee should not be hot? I know it is hotter than usual. But if the old lady is more careful, will that incident happen in the first place?

    Should knife maker not sharpen the knife before leaving factory? People expected knife if sharp when new. Same as hot coffee is hot. This is the reason why a toaster need to put a warning on so that people will not to put it in shower. 
  • Reply 20 of 40
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    It is very distressing how litigious the U.S. is. I just feel very strongly that we should take personal responsibility. The crash was not the fault of the car. It was the fault of the driver. I still, after all of these years, think about the woman who sued McDonald’s because she spilled hot coffee on her lap. I of course believe that people should have the right to sue, but people take it way to far. If people are trespassing on my property without my consent, they should not be allowed to sue me for example.
    What you should be more distressed about is how corporate PR is so effective at damage control that it can turn a 79 year old woman who had her labia fused closed by the heat of McDonalds coffee into a self serving villain and the poster child for greedy lawsuits when all she wanted was help with her medical expenses and for McDonalds to stop serving unreasonably hot coffee that could cause third degree burns in 3 seconds.

    https://www.enjuris.com/blog/resources/mcdonalds-hot-coffee-lawsuit/
    elijahgAlex_Vmuthuk_vanalingam13485
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