What you need to know
- Apple has lost three more engineers from its Apple Car project.
- Eric Rogers, Alex Clarabut, and Stephen Spiteri have all left the project for other startups.
The Apple Car project continues to be a tumultuous as it has always been.
As reported by Bloomberg, the company has lost three more key engineers who were working on its Apple Car project. Eric Rogers, Alex Clarabut, and Stephen Spiteri have all left the project for other startups.
According to the report, Eric Rogers, billed as Apple's chief engineer for radar systems on the project, left for flying-taxi startup Joby Aviation Inc. in recent weeks. Alex Clarabut, an engineering manager for the team's battery systems group, joined Archer Aviation Inc., another company working to develop air taxis.Stephen Spiteri, an Apple hardware engineering manager, left to join Archer as well. Joby and Archer confirmed the appointments, which underscore a push by aviation startups to nab Silicon Valley talent. An Apple spokesman declined to comment.
Today's news comes just a week after another Apple engineer, Michael Schwekutsch, left the company for the electric aviation startup Archer.
Archer is working on electric-powered air taxis that take off and land vertically. Like competitors Lilium and Joby Aviation, Archer aims to transport passengers on short trips, avoiding traffic on the ground and the noise and emissions generated by traditional fuel-burning aircraft and cars.It's already developed a model known as the Maker that can carry one passenger and a pilot, and is working on a four-passenger model. The company aims to operate urban air mobility services starting in Los Angeles once its aircraft are cleared by the Federal Aviation Administration for commercial use.
The Apple Car project is now led by Apple executive Kevin Lynch, who is also in charge of watchOS.
