What’s the latest on Apple’s car project? The autonomous vehicle development, which has been controversial within the company for some time, has reportedly come to a standstill. Accordingly, an important executive for Apple Car is said to have switched to a rival electric car manufacturer.
Apple car executives transfer to Rivian
DJ Novotney, who spent nearly 25 years on Apple’s Hardware Engineering team, has left the company. He joins Rivian as Vice President of Vehicle Programs. Novotney had been Apple’s Vice President of Hardware Engineering since the 2000s.
Novotney played a key role in the development of many iconic Apple products, including the iPod, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Most recently, he was one of the leaders behind the secret electric car initiative codenamed Project Titan. However, with the lack of development in the project, he decided to move to Rivian.
In a note to his colleagues at Apple, Novotney expressed his gratitude for his time at the company. But he said it was “time for a new challenge”.
Novotney will be a senior executive at Rivian, overseeing all aspects of the vehicle programs and reporting to CEO RJ Scaringe. Novotney’s transfer to the team also reveals the new strategy against competitors like Tesla.
It was stated that Apple has been working on the electric vehicle project for many years, but has struggled to produce a real product. This situation causes the company to lose talented names.
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