Bloomberg reports that one of Lamborghini’s top car-development managers, Luigi Taraborrelli has joined the Apple Car team. His hiring indicates that the tech giant is making headway with Project Titan.
In 2014, Apple launched Project Titan to develop an electric automobile. Soon after the project was shelved after it suffered from talent loss, mismanagement, and other issues. However, news surrounding Apple’s autonomous electric vehicle gained momentum in 2020 and it is a matter of “when” not “if”, the Cupertino tech giant will launch its first passenger self-driving electric vehicle.
A new report revealed that since 2000, the company has filed 248 auto-related patents for software and hardware technologies.
A 20-year veteran from Lamborghini is now working on the development of Apple Car
In a time of turmoil, former Head of chassis and vehicle dynamics at Lamborghini Luigi Taraborrelli has joined the Apple Car team.
In his 20 years at the Italian automaker, Taraborrell lead the Research and Development department and worked on multiple Lamborghini models like Urus, Huracan, and Aventador, along with limited models like the Huracan Sterrato off-road vehicle and Asterion concept car. The report states:
Apple Inc. has enlisted one of Lamborghini’s top car-development managers in a sign that it’s stepping up work on a self-driving electric vehicle, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
The company hired Luigi Taraborrelli, a 20-year veteran of the Italian carmaker, to help lead the design of Apple’s future vehicle, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter isn’t public. Taraborrelli was most recently Lamborghini’s head of chassis and vehicle dynamics.
Although Apple Car is expected to launch by 2025-2027, it was recently reported that the project was facing problems like selective demos, mapping issues, unrealistic expectations, team changes, and management trust.
Since Apple has zero experience in building an automobile, it is not surprising to know that its Project Titan is not going smoothly and lost senior talent.
The project’s director of autonomous systems, CJ Moore, resigned in May join a global automotive technology company, Luminar. Former Apple Car chief Doug Field joined Ford Motors as chief advanced technology and embedded systems officer, Apple’s former global head of battery development Soonho Ahn joined Volkswagen to develop batteries for its electric vehicle (EV) projects, and former engineer for Special Projects Group, Micheal Schwekutsch joined Archer as its senior vice president of engineering. Three other engineers have left Apple to join electric aviation startups.
Luckily, the tech giant has hired an individual with extensive experience in the automobile industry to steer the project to shore which is headed by Apple VP Kevin Lynch.
