Google, Tesla And Apple Race For Electric, Autonomous Vehicle Talent
Apple, Google, Tesla, and Ford appear to be in a bit of a hiring -- and in some cases, poaching -- spree to build up their electric and self-driving car teams. Here is a look at some of the more high-profile comings and goings.
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The high-stakes race to develop mass-market electric vehicles and the more recent, if less compelling, technology behind self-driving vehicles, has spurred a fierce battle for top talent at some of the world's biggest companies, including Apple, Google, Ford, and Tesla.
Apple and Tesla in particular seem keen to poach from each other's ranks, though the company better known for iPhones and MacBooks appears to be furiously ramping up its efforts and keeping a secretive lid on just what Titan, its electric vehicle project, is all about.
With secretive hirings also come unexpected departures -- the newest being the reported exit of Apple veteran Steve Zadesky from Project Titan.
Zadesky's departure has put additional pressure on the Titan team, which, according to the WSJ report, has been faced with unattainable targets and no clear goals. Bloomberg reported last February that Apple is pushing the team to have an electric car in production by 2020.
[See Google, Tesla, Nissan: 6 Self-Driving Vehicles Cruising Our Way.]
Along with the search for top talent are less than guarded remarks from industry leaders, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who had some choice worlds regarding Apple's poaching methods.
"We always jokingly call Apple the Tesla Graveyard," Musk told the paper. "They have hired people we've fired ... If you don't make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I'm not kidding."
Later, Musk sent out a Tweet that backed off on some of the Apple comments.
"Yo, I don't hate Apple. It's a great company with a lot of talented people. I love their products and I'm glad they're doing an EV," he wrote on his official Twitter account.
As the electric vehicle space continues to get more competitive, we're likely to see ever-bigger battles for talent as more companies enter the fray. Here's a look at some of the recent big comings and goings.
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Jim Keller, who was most recently a lead architect at AMD who oversaw the development of the upcoming Zen processor architecture, will move over to Tesla to work with its Autopilot development team. Tesla confirmed the news in late January. During his tenure at Apple, Keller designed Apple's A4 and A5 chips, which powered iPhones and iPads.
Steve Zadesky, who is thought to be the project lead on Titan, the company's rumored self-driving car initiative, left the company for personal reasons. Zadesky's departure has put additional pressure on the Titan team, which, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Jan. 22, has been faced with unattainable targets and no clear goals.
While working for Chrysler, Doug Betts's responsibilities included field issue problem solving and warranty management, manufacturing operations, proving grounds operations, supplier quality, technical service, and product development process leadership. Apple's electric vehicle project, code-named Titan, still hasn't been officially acknowledged by the company, despite reports that Apple has hired hundreds of new employees to explore the venture. The WSJ reported on July 20, 2015, that Apple hired Betts.
Apple hired Jamie Carlson, a former senior engineer at electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors. Before working at Tesla, Carlson had served as the principal engineer for L3 Communications, a communications, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C3ISR) systems and products specialist, as well as the lead software development engineer for Gentex, a manufacturer of camera-based driver assistance systems for the automotive industry. Reuters reported the move on Aug 21, 2015.
In an executive hiring move designed to shift its self-driving car project from expensive hobbyhorse to potential money-making business, Google tapped John Krafcik to lead its autonomous vehicle division. Krafcik, who most recently was the CEO of online car shopping service TruCar, served as the CEO of Hyundai and an executive at Ford. He confirmed that he had joined Google via a Sept. 13, 2015 Twitter post.
In Nov. 2015, Tesla announced Jason Wheeler would be the company's next chief financial officer, while former Enservio CEO Jon McNeill joined the company as president of global sales and service. Wheeler joined Tesla after 13 years at Google, where he was vice president of finance and led Google's global finance function.
Appointed in Aug. 2014, Ken Washington leads Ford's worldwide research organization, overseeing the development and implementation of the company's technology strategy and plans. Prior to joining Ford, he was vice president of the Space Technology Advanced Research and Development Laboratories at Lockheed Martin Space Systems.
Tesla and Apple's back-and-forth battle for talent goes all the way back to 2013, when Tesla hired Doug Field as its vice president of vehicle programs, to be responsible for driving development of new vehicles. Field had previously served as vice president of Mac hardware engineering at Apple, where he led the development of many new products, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iMac.
Tesla and Apple's back-and-forth battle for talent goes all the way back to 2013, when Tesla hired Doug Field as its vice president of vehicle programs, to be responsible for driving development of new vehicles. Field had previously served as vice president of Mac hardware engineering at Apple, where he led the development of many new products, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iMac.
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