There was a time not so long ago when Apple was preparing an electric car. This is the famous Apple Car, which although not officially announced, had been in the works for a decade. And meanwhile, Apple tried to hire the best engineers in the industry. Some of them were at Tesla, one of the leaders and also American.
Apple went fishing in the company led by Elon Musk, which made the tycoon who also owned X laugh. And he suggested that Apple only saved the remains of Tesla. However, among the well-known names of engineers who passed from one to another, those who were not exactly person a Tesla.
these Apple operations as disastrous given that the engineers incorporated by Tesla's Californians were little more than remnants.
Apple was looking for engineers for its “Titan”
The fact that Apple hired engineers specialized in the development of electric vehicles was just one of the many indications that existed regarding its Titan project, which is what they internally called this ambitious project to launch an electric car under their brand.
Tesla has been a company that has been in the automotive industry for over two decades, and much of its success stems from the advancements made over the past decade. Fair at the same time when Apple was designing its own vehicle. So it was not uncommon for the company to hire Tesla workers.
Elon Musk, who was one of the founders and CEO since 2016, was aware of these movements by Apple. However, he tried to downplay these company-hopping, going so far as to claim that Apple was becoming “Tesla's graveyard.”
This is what the tycoon said after being asked whether the workers hired by Apple were relevant or not. Musk said that “They hire people we fired”specifying that it was not really a question of staff theft, but rather of simple unemployed people who had worked for Tesla for a long time.
Maybe Tesla's number 2 engineer wasn't a person
Chris Porritt, one of Tesla's main engineers who moved to Apple
There aren't many names we know of these engineers who moved from Tesla to Apple, but one of the few we know belonged to Chris Porritt, one of the lead engineers at the company led by Elon Musk and whose signature cancels this. the idea that Apple was Tesla's graveyard.
In favor of Elon Musk, it should be said that his statements in this regard took place before Porritt made the jump to Apple. However, this proves that there were people involved who trusted the idea of those from Cupertino (even if in the end it was a bad decision).
Chris Porritt became vice president of Tesla from 2013 to 2015being number two on the engineering team and after a career dedicated to motorsport. For a decade he was a senior engineer at Land Rover and before joining Tesla he performed similar tasks at Aston Martin. At Apple, as noted in his LinkedIn profile, he was from 2016 to 2020.
This lasted four years in an unknown position he called “Special Projects Group”. Something obvious knowing that Apple has never outright revealed its electric vehicle plans. However, a signing like Porritt's clearly shows how ambitious the project was.
Most of the Apple Car team took to the streets
Neither this nor other new car models will see the light of day from Apple (Image: SanShow on DevianArt)
It sounds crude, but that's how it is. Porritt left Apple four years before the project was canceled and although we do not know the reasons, it is possible that during his stay at the Californian company he was already aware that the problems kept growing. It is not for nothing that the Apple Car project is experiencing numerous delays.
For years, Apple had to lower its expectations. From the desire for an electric and practically completely autonomous vehicle, the bar was lowered until a few months before its cancellation, a much less ambitious vehicle idea leaked. Electric, yes, but with very few options to be autonomous.
Without a car to design, automotive engineers had little to do with Apple
Finally, it was in February that we learned that the project was definitively canceled after ten years of development and an investment of 10 billion dollars. Sources say that part of the annual budget that Apple allocated for the development of the vehicle will now be allocated to artificial intelligence. However, the question of workers is more complex.
Apple fired a large part of the team in charge of the Apple Car. Beyond the fact that they could not meet what was expected, the truth is that it was such a specialized team that they had no other choice, given that 'They didn't have much room in other departments. Without having known names, we know that some remain on the payroll for the future development of Apple CarPlay, but with a focus on the software and nothing related to the mechanics of a vehicle that we will never see again.
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