What you need to know
- Benjamin Lyon has reportedly left the Apple Car team.
- Lyon has moved on to a role at the satellite startup Astra.
The Apple Car project has reportedly lost a key manager, with Benjamin Lyon leaving the company after having been part of the team since 2014.
According to a Bloomberg report, Lyon has moved on to space and satellite startup Astra.
Lyon reportedly helped form the original Apple Car team, then dubbed Project Titan, way back in 2014 and has been a manager working on the sensors the self-driving card would need.
Benjamin Lyon helped form Apple's original autonomous electric car team in 2014 as its most senior manager working on sensors. He remained on the team through its various reboots over the past several years, and most recently led a self-driving car sensors team reporting directly to Doug Field, Apple's vice president in charge of the car project.
The Apple Car project has gone through various iterations over the years and Lyon has been there from day one. What impact his leaving will have on the project as a whole remains to be seen, but Bloomberg's Mark Gurman seems to be of the opinion that there's a potential for setbacks.
Recent reports have Apple talking to companies like Nissan, Hyundai, and others in an attempt to find a manufacturing partner for Apple Car. After initially saying that it was in talks with Apple, Hyundai has since distanced itself from the project with the company's executives now under investigation over the potential for market manipulation.
