Recently, according to Bloomberg, the three engineers who recently left were Eric Rogers, chief engineer of radar systems, Alex Clarabut, engineering manager of the battery team, and Steven Spiteri, manager of hardware engineering.
Previously, from September to early December this year, Doug Field, Apple's car project leader, Apple's global battery director Soonho Ahn, and automotive engineering director Michael Schwekutsch also left Apple.
Judging from Apple's car-making actions in recent years, although it is not going well, it is also stumbling.
In 2021, Apple's car-making "scandal" object spread throughout the entire automotive circle, just when people thought that Apple brand cars should make substantial progress, but inside it came out the news of the departure of a number of executives. According to incomplete statistics, Apple's car project has lost at least 9 important members this year.
Key talents have fled, which can't help but make people wonder, can Apple make cars still succeed?
Source: Motor Trend
Apple is slow to build a car, then leave Apple to build a car
Apple's Titan program and its members seem to have ushered in their seven-year itch. Judging from the whereabouts of many executives and engineers who left this year, almost all of them have turned to other car companies.
Recently departed Director of Automotive Engineering Michael Schwickock chose to join Air Taxi startup Archer Aviation as Senior Vice President. He was followed by Battery Team Engineering Manager Alex Crabbert and Hardware Engineering Manager Steven Spitley.
Eric Rogers, chief engineer of radar systems, joined another flying taxi startup, Joy Aviation. According to foreign media reports, some apple car project employees have joined another new car company, Rivian.
Under the boom of departures, as the progress of car manufacturing in different camps accelerates, it is not only start-ups but also traditional car companies that attract these automakers.
In September, Doug Field, head of Apple's automotive program, moved to Ford as Chief Advanced Technology and Embedded Systems Officer. Just as low as November, Apple's global battery director An Shunhao also joined Volkswagen's PowerCo division as chief technology officer, responsible for battery research and development for electric vehicles.
It is worth noting that Doug Field is the fourth project leader to leave since the establishment of Apple's "Titan" program.
In the first half of this year, three other executives also worked seamlessly with the new company after leaving. Dave Scott, who led Apple's automotive-related robotics research team, joined hyperfine, a healthcare company, as CEO.
Jaime Waydo, a former head of the autonomous vehicle safety and regulation team who left in February, joined startup Cavnue as chief technology officer. Another self-driving car executive, Benjamin Lyon, was also poached by rocket startup Astra as lead engineer.
Judging from the series of actions of Apple car this year, this also makes people wonder whether the continuous brain drain is related to the slow progress of Apple car manufacturing.
来源：Automobile Italia (CC BY-SA 2.0)
This year, Apple has successively reported the news that it may join hands with many car companies such as Hyundai and Kia, and has also negotiated with NINGDE Times, BYD, LG, SK and other companies on the supply of battery parts.
But apart from the announcement in August of this year that it would invest 4 trillion won (about 23.1 billion yuan) and formally reach a cooperation with Hyundai to jointly develop an electric model, other negotiations have not followed. Ningde era, BYD directly rejected Apple's request to build a factory in the United States.
Inside the project, whether it is Bob Mansfield, the former senior vice president of hardware engineering who was rehired in 2016, or Doug Field, who was repopulated from Tesla, both project leaders have declared that the research and development of autonomous driving systems is the core of the project, and the car-making plan under the concept of "vertical integration" needs to be temporarily shelved.
But Apple continues to expand outwards, and a series of actions to seek cooperation show that "Titan" has never and will not give up the full-stack self-developed independent car-making plan. According to FT, several employees who have left the Titan program said that Apple has not yet chosen a clear path forward.
If this is the case, then there is no clear goal and vision, even if the market has ardent expectations for Apple's car, but full of fighting spirit, it will gradually be worn away in a long period of exploration. Today's U.S. electric vehicle market seems to give these car-making talents more room for imagination.
Archer and Joby, who have recently joined Schwekuch, Rogers and others, both completed their listings in February. In the second half of the year, two electric vehicle startups, Lucid Motors and Rivian Automotive, also went public, and their market capitalization soared. Among them, The market value of Rivian once surpassed Ford and GM, triggering a round of carnival in the US electric vehicle market to find the next Tesla.
The established giants have also accelerated their own transition to electrification. Volkswagen is investing hundreds of billions of dollars in emerging technologies for electric vehicles; Ford's Musk Mache-E is directly benchmarking tesla Model Y; and General Motors also plans to launch 30 electric models by 2025.
When the wave of new car manufacturing in the United States is in full swing, new opportunities continue to emerge, perhaps giving other executives more room to show their talents.
Can apple cars still be built?
The Titans program is slow, but it's not a no-brainer.
In the wave of departures of key talents, there are also fresh blood to join Apple car. Apple has poached not only Christopher Moore, president of Autopilot, Tesla's former autopilot system, but also Ulrich Kranz, former vice president of BMW's electric vehicle division, and Manfred Harrer, a former Porsche executive.
At the same time, Apple has also transferred Kevin Lynch, who has previously been in charge of smartwatch and health projects, to take over the "Titan" program. But it is worth noting that because Lynch has never had experience in the automotive industry, it is reported that this move has also aroused some employees' doubts internally.
To be sure, frequent executive turnovers in Apple's auto projects have become commonplace in the industry over the past few years, and the titan program, which has been developing a series of twists and turns, will not be stranded by the loss of personnel.
Yi Ran, author of "Musk the Martian" and founder of Road Flight Consulting, believes that the loss of personnel from the "Titan" project team will not have an excessive negative impact on the entire car-building plan. Laurie Yule, Tesla's founding director and former zoox board member, also said that despite the turmoil, it was too early to think that Apple's seven-year-long car-making plan had failed.
In early December, it was reported that the research and development of the self-driving chip required by Apple's car had been basically completed, and apple was also cooperating with semiconductor design and manufacturing company TSMC to develop a semi-autonomous vehicle and produce Apple Car chips in the United States.
But there are also sources that Apple is still hesitating between independently building complete vehicles or designing self-driving systems for other automakers.
In addition, as of November, Apple Automobile has also obtained a number of patents, namely automotive exterior lighting technology, interior lighting technology, and multiple patents related to sensors, suspension systems and traffic notifications in the world of autonomous driving.
Source: iphonedigital (CC BY-SA 2.0)
But it is undeniable that the first Apple Car without steering wheels, no pedals, and L4 level self-driving is still some way away.
According to the self-driving test report submitted by Apple Motors, Apple Cars drove 19,000 self-driving miles last year in 2020, while Waymo Motors (Alphabet's self-driving project) completed 630,000 miles in the same year. Waymo vehicles averaged about 30,000 miles of self-driving miles during testing, compared to just 145 miles for Apple cars.
Although the progress of chips continues to be good news, the poor automatic driving test, coupled with the slow progress of upstream and downstream supply chain cooperation, and the continuous loss of personnel, have also made many people and institutions question the future of Apple's car.
In this regard, Lan He, a veteran of the automotive industry and senior vice president of I see driving, believes that whether it is from the perspective of test mileage or the autonomous driving environment, the launch of Apple's car has not yet arrived, "From the perspective of business, it is more reasonable to first focus on automatic driving systems and auxiliary automatic driving systems, adapt and provide solutions to other car companies." ”
Bernstein analyst Arndt Ehringhorst said he didn't see where Apple's strengths lay. It argues that "it is not a good thing to have an advantage in a market where it is extremely difficult to make money." ”
Goldman Sachs also pointed out in a report that even in optimistic situations, Apple's potential to make a profit in the less profitable auto business is slim. "Apple is more likely to follow the old path of Apple TV and become a service provider in the electric vehicle market than to build a low-margin car from scratch."
Seven years later, perhaps for the current Apple, there are two options in the automotive industry: choose to launch a full-stack self-developed self-driving car, or devote themselves to the mass production of autonomous driving chips, and provide the industry with autonomous driving technology solutions adapted to different models.
In Yi ran's view, Apple should make good use of its advantages in software and hardware and brand effects, and launch a semi-autonomous driving car before 2025, rather than a fully autonomous vehicle, in order to ensure its competitiveness in the market.
Judging from the current competitive environment, even if the market has expectations for Apple cars, it may need to be a little faster.
The author | Cui Qiuyang
Edit the | Wang Yan