Apple continues to poach Tesla talent for new car business venture
Apple appears to be pushing its interest for automotive development, as it reportedly hired one of Tesla's senior engineers. Despite the company's silence about speculations on cars or upcoming automotive technology, a recent LinkedIn posting supports previous claims that Apple is building a team for a new business venture.
According to a report from Reuters, Jamie Carlson's LinkedIn profile shows his transfer from Tesla to Apple. Six other LinkedIn profiles with self-driving technology and systems experience under their belts have also joined the tech giant. Apple has refused to comment on the subject, while efforts to reach the seven reported individuals remain unsuccessful. Previous reports said that Apple is working on a car and is also exploring self-driving technology.it remains unclear whether the company will push push through with this development.
In the past weeks, several people have also joined Apple, including Xianqiao Tong, an engineer with computer vision experience for driver assistance systems. Another person who joined the tech giant is Paul Furgale. He previously served as the deputy director of the Autonomous Systems Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
This hiring spree is on top of an exclusive report by The Guardian, saying that Apple scouted a facility to test its cars. According to reports obtained by the publication under the Public Records Act, the company already got in touch with GoMentum Station -- an old Concord naval weapons station. According to officials, the base is “the largest secure test facility in the world,” which can be used for “testing validation and commercialization of connected vehicle (CV) applications and autonomous vehicles (AV) technologies to define the next generation of transportation network infrastructure.”
Apple's move is expected, considering recent decisions by Google, Uber and similar companies to invest in robot cars. There are still no definite products announced to come, but the technology industry is giving more attention to the advancement of automobiles.
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