Apple Hires Senior Autopilot Engineer From Tesla

According to a report published recently by Reuters, Apple has been working to bring on engineers for its “Special Projects” division, including some from major automakers. That includes a former Tesla Motors senior engineer, which the publication notes is Jamie Carlson. It’s already showing on Carlson’s LinkedIn page that he’s working with Apple in their “Special Projects” division, but what that entails exactly isn’t known. Moreover, what Carlson was doing at Tesla Motors is unknown, other than that he was involved with Tesla’s autonomous vehicle firmware project.

That’s not the only recent hire. The report also outlines several others, including Megan McClain previously of Volkswagen, Xianqiao Tong, who developed driver assistance programs at NVIDIA, and Vinay Palakkode, a graduate researcher. It’s not a secret at this point that Apple is indeed hiring quite a lot of individuals tied in some way to the automotive industry, or those that have ties to it in some way or another.

Recently, engineers from Apple’s secretive Special Project group met with officials from GoMentum Station, to inquire a 2,100-acre former naval base near San Francisco that is being turned into a high-security testing ground for autonomous vehicles. It’s believed that Apple is interested in using the facility to test its rumored self-driving electric vehicle.

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