It seems Apple is in a mood to compete with Google in every sphere. Carrying forward the smartphone war, the company developed an apparent challenger of Android Wear Smartwatches and now it is reportedly planning to launch a self-driving car. For accomplishing the project, the Cupertino-based company has hired a senior engineer from Elon Musk's electric car manufacturer, Tesla.
The new employee, Jamie Carlson, has changed his 'current employer' profile from Tesla to Apple in his LinkedIn page, DailyMail reports. Along with the expert, around six others have switched to Apple from Tesla.
In January, Apple had hired a former Volkswagen AG engineer, Megan McClain, an expert in automated driving and Vinay Palakkode, graduate researcher, Carnegie Mellon University. It also hired Xianqiao Tong who developed a computer vision software for driver assistance system for NVIDIA.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Apple also hired a former deputy director of Autonomous Systems Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in the beginning of the year. The person, Paul Furgale, has updated his LinkedIn profile as an employee of Apple's special project group.
Apple has also hired numerous employees from reputed automobile companies such as BMW, Volkswagen and Ford Motor Co. Among them, one engineer has expertise in developing connected and automated vehicles at Ford, while another has expertise in computer vision and object detection.
According to graphic designers, Apple will retain its simple yet elegant look for the 'iCar'. But Apple is yet to come out with an official statement.
The iPhone famed company is also rumoured to launch its next flagship smartphone very soon. The iPhone 6 successor is expected to be named as iPhone 6S or iPhone 7.
