Apple Betts big on cars with auto industry hires

21 Jul 2015

Apple’s push towards developing its own cars is continuing apace with the hiring of auto industry veteran Doug Betts, a few months after taking on Paul Furgale, another expert from Switzerland.

Formerly of Fiat Chrysler, Michelin and Toyota, Betts now works in ‘Operations – Apple Inc’, lending to the rumours that Titan, Apple’s electric car project, is speeding up.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Betts left his role at Fiat Chrysler last year “abruptly”. His leaving came within hours of the company’s brands ranking poorly in a reliability study.

Business Insider recently reported that Apple was working on something that will give “Tesla a run for its money”.

Apple car could go far

Back in February it emerged that Apple was targeting 2020 as a time for its electric cars to come on stream, with the vehicles expected to cost less than US$40,000 and to go more than 200 miles (321km) on a single charge.

It means that Apple and Google are again finding common ground in which to battle for supremacy. The latter, for example, is already trialing its self-driving cars on public roads.

Before any of these devices are available for mass consumption, however, there are other areas of the automotive industry in which these tech giants can compete.

Areas like dashbords, where iOS and Android options are now becoming key decisions for car buyers to make…

Car image, via Shutterstock

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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