Ford has done quite a bit of reshuffling amid its executive ranks as it heads into a future focused on electrification, with one of its most notable acquisitions coming from tech giant Apple – hiring that company’s former VP of special products, Doug Field, as its new chief advanced technology and embedded systems officer back in 2021. Field – who recently purchased a large amount of Blue Oval stock – is now serving as Ford’s chief EV, digital, and design officer, tasked with developing electric vehicles, creating digital platforms, and software for the entire product lineup, as well as leading vehicle and digital design studios. However, at Apple, Field was also leading the company’s development of its very first vehicle, which is apparently what caused him to leave in the first place, according to Bloomberg.
According to this new report, there was much uncertainty surrounding the future of the Apple Car, as it’s otherwise known, which has rumored to have been in the works for many years now. In fact, there was so much uncertainty on Field’s part that he didn’t believe Apple brass would ever formally greenlight the project, which is what led him to jump ship, even after heading up engineering efforts at Tesla.
In the meantime, the long-rumored Apple Car continues to be little more than just that – a rumor – as the company hasn’t officially announced such a project, nor has it shown any sort of prototype or even concept drawing. However, according to this same report, that future EV is now slated to launch in 2028.
To bring this vehicle to reality, Apple has reportedly scaled back its ambitions to make it a more viable product, rather than the fully self-driving model it originally planned to build – now, it will feature Level 2 autonomy to start. At the same time, Project Titan – as it’s otherwise known – has reportedly been in the works since 2014, has seen its fair share of leadership changeups, strategy changes, and of course, delays along the way.
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Comments
That Apple EV will only run with iOS, and charge with a huge Lightning style plug at Apple certified charge stations. And you can never use Google apps on it! The worse part? It will be built at the Chinese factory of Foxcomm where all iPhones are built. So who will buy a Chinese built Apple product?
That Apple EV will be built at the Foxcomm factory in China whete all iPhones are made. So who will buy a Chinese made Apple lroduct?