Project Titan, Apple’s hundreds-strong initiative to create a next-generation electric car, is continuing to ramp up.
Word has it that Cupertino has just hired one of the industry’s veteran manufacturing executives to help push the so-called Apple car to market.
Doug Betts, previously the senior vice president of Chrysler Group, has been snatched up by Apple, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Previously, Betts was global head of operations of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, leading product service and quality.
Although there is no official confirmation of Betts’ role within Apple, Paul Furgale, an autonomous vehicle researcher, and is also seeking out other employees with robotics experience for the project … implying that Project Titan, as sometimes rumored, is looking to go head-to-head with Google’s autonomous-car initiative.
Whatever the truth, we’ll have to wait and see. It seems clear Apple is making a push into automobiles, but in what fashion is still a mystery. It’s likely to remain so for quite some time: Rumors have it the Apple Car won’t be revealed until 2020.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
7 responses to “The Apple car looks more likely as Cupertino hires new execs”
Go AAPL !!
“Previously, Bettes was the global head of operations of Christler [sic], leading product service and quality.”
With this kind of previous boss, Tim must’ve figured it was one of his best Bettes.
Taste The -f-m–a—- – < www.NetCash9.Com
Fuck off spammer.
Global Head of Operations of “Christler” Love child of Christ and Hitler.
Christler: I’ve heard of them. The Fundamentalist Christian wing of the auto industry. Free bobble head Jesus with every new car!
(Also the Gray Lady is actually the NYT.)
On a serious note, this really does look like something that’s happening. Who knows if we’ll remember this as Apple’s crowning achievement or the pinnacle of their hubris that led to disaster. But Tim Cook and his team are certainly not standing still…
Yikes, I hope they aren’t working on a car. iOS 8 has been a mess since day 1, the Apple Watch is a joke, and the purchase of Beats was just tacky. Apple needs to go back to focusing on a few core products and services; the bloat is slowly ruining Apple for what they were famous for- simplicity, ease of use, and high quality products that you never knew you needed until you used them.