Apple’s electric car project has been nothing short of a disaster. It has been a while since the project began but it has been progressing at a snail’s pace. In the process, multiple project managers who were important either left the project or were shifted to other assignments. However, now Apple finally seems to have made a positive development in designing its first electric car as it has hired one of Lamborghini’s top car-development managers, as per Mark Gurman.
Apple’s latest hire has over 20 years of experience working with Lamborghini
This step from the Cupertino giant is an indication that it is getting restless and taking its electric car project seriously and putting it on the top of its priority list. The latest hire is Luigi Taraborrelli, an Italian carmaker with nearly 20+ years of experience in designing automobiles. Before joining this ambitious electric car project, he was closely working with Lamborghini where he headed the chassis and vehicle dynamics division.
Taraborrelli is one of the senior-most managers on the electric car’s development team, his primary responsibility is to design the car in a futuristic manner, which just makes it all the more exciting as his past projects have become some of the most iconic cars that Lamborghini has ever worked on.
The Urus, Huracan, Aventador, and Huracan Sterrato off-road vehicles, are all flagships of the carmaker and Taraborrelli has worked closely on all these projects. He also oversaw the development of the Asterion concept car and assisted Lamborghini in developing the chassis as well as the handling, suspensions, steering, brakes, and rims as per his official resume.
Apple is yet to make an official statement with respect to his hire. The iPhone maker earlier hired a 31-year-old veteran from Ford Motor Co to lead its vehicle-safety efforts, it also hired Ulrich Kranz, the former chief of Canoo Inc and former head of BMW’s electric car division. Prior to that, Apple hired Tesla’s autopilot chief Stuart Bowers to develop self-driving technology.
The ambitious project that the world’s most valuable tech company is working on has prominent engineers from across the entire auto industry, from Tesla to McLaren and Porsche to Aston Martin, you name it, Apple’s car development project has it all. The company had announced its intention to introduce a car in 2025 with a design that offers premium interiors similar to that of a limousine. It wishes to create something different, a car without steering wheels or pedals but completely reliant on automated autonomous tech. However, looking at the progression, it seems highly unlikely that the company will be able to achieve its goal.
Despite all these hires, there have been multiple losses as well, the former head of the project Doug Field, and AI specialist Ian Goodfellow left to pursue other endeavors. As of now, Kevin Lynch oversees the project, he also heads the smartwatch division and health software, teams.
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