Apple’s former VP of People Business Partners, Jennifer Waldo will be joining Ford to establish the “Ford+” restructuring project that aims to compete against Tesla with its own electric vehicles. Previously, head of the Apple Car project, Doug Field left Apple to join Ford as its chief advanced technology and embedded systems officer.
Ford’s CEO Jim Farley is vigorously pursuing the transformation of the company to produce electric vehicles and technologies like Tesla. And the manufacturer acknowledged that Doug’s experience and expertise will likely help Ford in accomplishing that goal.
“This is a watershed moment for our company — Doug has accomplished so much,” Farley said in a briefing with reporters. “This is just a monumental moment in time that we have now to really remake” the automaker.
Will Apple Car launch in time to capture the competitive electric vehicle market?
Several manufacturers have their eyes set on entering the electric vehicle industry which is currently dominated by Tesla. Like Ford, the Cupertino tech giant is, reportedly, developing its first autonomous passenger electric vehicle (EV) which is expected to launch in 2025 – 2027. The company’s EV will be powered by a revolutionary battery to deliver a longer range and lower power consumption and will feature LiDAR scanners to measure the distance between objects and vehicles, level 5 autonomy to drive without any human intervention, and more.
Even Apple’s supply chain partners are venturing into the EV industry.
Foxconn (iPhone assembler) signed a deal with Indian group Vedanta to manufacture semiconductors for electric vehicles and other industries in India. And Luxshare (AirPods assembler) has invested in a new venture to develop and manufacture electric vehicles of other companies in partnership with the Cherry group.
Although the launch of the tech giant’s EV is a few years, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo hinted at a decline in EV’s development efforts which extend its launch time.
The Apple Car project team has been dissolved for some time. The reorganization within the next three to six months is necessary to achieve the goal of mass production by 2025.
