Another Senior Executive Leaves The Apple Car Project

A decade ago, Apple decided to get into automotive manufacturing. It must have gone to the Jeremy Clarkson school of engineering because its attitude toward building a car can be summed up in one infamous short sentence. "How hard can it be?" And now, the famous smartphone maker has hit another major snag.

As Apple found out, the answer is very. In June last year, things seemed to be going swell. Apple was reportedly talking toChinese battery manufacturers, well on its way to meeting the 2024 deadline. It alsopoached employees from Teslaand the man responsible for the BMW i8.

Now Apple is getting a taste of its own medicine, as a US-based autonomous vehicle systems specialist poached one of its senior executives less than a year after he started working for Apple.

Christopher CJ Moore is not a well-known name, but you know his work. He helped Tesla bring Autopilot to fruition before being lured to Apple in August last year. Moore has now moved from Apple to Luminar Technology, a company specializing in lidar-based autonomous driving.

For the record, there is a current dispute in the automotive world over whether basic camera systems are good enough for autonomous driving. Tesla and Toyota seem to think so, but other manufacturers continue to rely on Lidar.

Luminar Technology is also relatively unknown in the automotive world, but its name will gain traction in the coming years. It recently partnered with Mercedes-Benz to develop next-generation autonomous systems. It seems Mercedes is one of the manufacturers putting their money behind Lidar.