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Home / News / Apple hires car industry veteran, rekindling self-driving iCar rumours

Apple hires car industry veteran, rekindling self-driving iCar rumours

Here's a fresh rumour to remind you that Apple could be making its own car

Rumours of Apple working on its own car have gradually moved from the ‘downright insane’ end of the scale, all the way up to ‘wow, this might actually be happening’.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Apple poached numerous members of staff from electric car company Tesla and Mercedes-Benz, putting them to work on the mysterious project Titan – reportedly an electric self-driving car that resembles a minivan.

The latest news now points to another high profile car industry hiring. According to the Wall Street Journal, Doug Betts, ex-global quality control head at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, donned his Apple uniform earlier this month.

Betts’ LinkedIn page simply describes his job as “Operations – Apple Inc” which is just about as vague a job title as you can get without simply typing “I do stuff – A place”.

The Journal’s report goes on to state that Apple also recently snapped up one of Europe’s leading researchers on self-driving vehicles.

It’s not entirely insane then, to actually believe that Apple is, at the very least, researching autonomous vehicles somewhere in the secretive depths of its Cupertino HQ.

There is of course a chance that all of these signs simply point to car experts working on improvements to Apple CarPlay, but a self-driving iCar no longer seems completely beyond the realm of possibility. Watch this space.

[Wall Street Journal]

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Esat has been a gadget fan ever since his tiny four-year-old brain was captivated by a sound-activated dancing sunflower. From there it was a natural progression to a Sega Mega Drive, a brief obsession with hedgehogs, and a love for all things tech. After 7 years as a writer and deputy editor for Stuff, Esat ventured out into the corporate world, spending three years as Editor of Microsoft's European News Centre. Now a freelance writer, his appetite for shiny gadgets has no bounds. Oh, and like all good human beings, he's very fond of cats.