Whether or not you believe Apple has plans to enter the car business, it’s getting increasingly hard to ignore the vast number of notable auto-related hires the company has made in recent months. Indeed, we recently reported that Apple now finds itself subject to a lawsuit for poaching 5 Ph.D scientists from A123 Systems, a company specializing in advanced car battery technologies.
And just last week, the Financial Times reported that Apple recently hired Johann Jungwirth, the former CEO and President of Mercedes-Benz’s Research and Development wing. What’s more, a recent report from The Wall Street Journal indicated that Apple now has hundreds of employees working on an electric car initiative.
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Building atop of that, 9to5Mac has put together a comprehensive list detailing many of Apple’s recent auto-related hires. As one would expect, a number of employees involved in the company’s purported car project formerly worked for Tesla. Additionally, Apple has hired a number of individuals with expertise in various facets of car production and design, including safety systems, transmission design, and drivetrain engineering.
All that being said, 9to5Mac astutely observes:
The scope of Apple’s new hires goes well past the level of expertise needed to provide one or two components for a vehicle, and when combined with the increasingly public testing of camera-equipped vehicles, it’s clear that Apple’s ambitions now extend well beyond CarPlay.
Whatever Apple is up to, it’s certainly up to something.
