| 1 | DETROIT/SAN FRANCISCO Consumer electronics company Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has hired a senior engineer from electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA.O), according to a LinkedIn posting, as part of Apple's effort to build a team of experts in automated driving. |
| 2 | A LinkedIn profile for Jamie Carlson shows that he has left Tesla and moved to Apple. |
| 3 | At least six others with experience developing self-driving technology and systems have joined Apple, according to their LinkedIn profiles. |
| 4 | Attempts to reach all seven people were unsuccessful and Apple declined to comment. |
| 5 | Sources have said that Apple is developing a car and studying self-driving technology, but it is unclear if the iPhone maker is designing a vehicle that could drive itself. |
| 6 | Since January, Apple has hired Megan McClain, a former Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) engineer with expertise in automated driving, and Vinay Palakkode, a graduate researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, a hub of automated driving research. |
| 7 | In August, Apple hired Xianqiao Tong, an engineer who developed computer vision software for driver assistance systems at microchip maker Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O). |
| 8 | The Wall Street Journal has reported that Apple hired Paul Furgale, former deputy director of the Autonomous Systems Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, earlier this year. |
| 9 | So-called advanced driver assistance systems, or ADAS, handle tasks such as keeping a vehicle in a lane or driving by itself in stop-and-go traffic, and they are considered the building blocks for self-driving cars. |
| 10 | According to Carlson's LinkedIn profile, he joined Apple in August in an unnamed position in a special projects group. |
| 11 | Other Apple hires since September 2014 with similar experience have worked at automakers BMW AG (BMWG.DE), Volkswagen and Ford Motor Co (F.N), automotive suppliers Delphi Automotive (DLPH.N), Robert Bosch GmbH [ROBG.UL] and TRW, now a part of ZF Friedrichshafen AG [ZFF.UL], according to their LinkedIn profiles. |
| 12 | Among those hired last fall were Sanjai Massey, an engineer with experience in developing connected and automated vehicles at Ford and several suppliers; Stefan Weber, a former Bosch engineer with experience in video-based driver assistance systems, and Lech Szumilas, a former Delphi research scientist with expertise in computer vision and object detection. |