Apple Logo
A man looks at his Apple iPad in front an Apple logo outside an Apple store in downtown Shanghai March 16, 2012. Reuters/Aly Song

Apple appears to be making serious attempts to give its electric car project an aggressive push. As per latest reports, the Cupertino based tech giant has hired Doug Betts, who previously served as the head of global quality at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

In his automobile sector career, Betts served as production manager at Michelin for over 10 years. He then moved on to take over as the general manager of Toyota, where he served for eight years and then joined Nissan as the senior vice president, where he served for three years. Betts served Chrysler for seven years, reports PC Mag. The publication also mentioned that Apple has hired more than 1000 people working on the Electric car project.

According to a report on Wall Street Journal, it is yet to be figured out whether Betts is a part of Apple’s car initiative or will he work on an existing product line. Apple had hired former Ford executive Steve Zadesky to lead the Apple’s electric car project, codenamed ‘Titan’ and recently, the company also got self-driving car researcher, Paul Furgale on board.

Automobile segment: Not meant for auto companies only

Recent developments in the tech industry, gives an impression that besides automakers, many tech companies are also coming up with their innovative products for the industry. Besides Apple, Google is also working towards making its way to the auto sector. It is currently testing its “Self Driving Cars” and finetuning it before presenting it to the general masses. Infact, last month, the search engine giant had launched a website that would deliver monthly updates on its Driverless car project, besides reporting about the accident cases encountered while testing the self driving car.

Mobile ride hailing app Uber, too is a part of the bandwagon. Reports on Uber’s plans to enter the self driving car space cropped up when Uber posted a job advertisement seeking professionals specializing in robotics, traffic simulation, vehicle testing, hardware and software development for its new Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh. Last month, Uber hired Google Maps veteran Brian McClendon to fructify its ‘Self Driving Car Project’. Soon after hiring McClendon, Uber acquired Microsoft Bing’s mapping technology.

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