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Apple hires head of Mercedes-Benz R&D, other auto experts for new secret research lab

Apple has hired former president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Research & Development Johann Jungwirth to join the company as Director of Mac Systems Engineering. The hire was confirmed by Jungwirth’s LinkedIn page, and first noted by a report in the Financial Times detailing Apple’s recent hires in the automotive industry and secretive new automotive research lab.

The report claims Apple’s automotive hires are for a new research lab where “experienced managers from its iPhone unit, are researching automotive products.”

The Apple research lab was set up late last year, not long after Apple unveiled its forthcoming smart watch and latest iPhones, which suggests that any resulting product may still be years away from release. Apple often investigates a wide range of new product areas, some of which never get released.

The hire follows much speculation on what Apple might have planned in the automotive space. Reports in recent weeks detailed an employee poaching war between Apple and Tesla and unsubstantiated reports that Apple had plans to build vehicles of its own. Apple is of course already quite involved in integrating products into vehicles, primarily through its CarPlay platform and partnerships with the majority of major car companies.

Jungwirth led Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America since March 2009 before joining Apple’s Mac team in September of last year. Doug Field, an Apple VP of Design and later Mac Hardware Engineering, notably left the company in 2013 to join Tesla.

The Financial Times mirrors other recent reports regarding Apple’s recent hires adding that “Sir Jonathan Ive’s team of Apple designers has held regular meetings with automotive executives and creators in recent months, in some cases trying to hire them.” It’s unclear whether Apple is actually pursuing an automotive venture on its own, or hiring experts to help with future Mac-based in-car computer systems.

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Comments

  1. rettun1 - 9 years ago

    This is getting interesting

  2. Richard Kahn - 9 years ago

    Maybe Apple is working on an autonomously operated vehicle based on the Macintosh Computer Operating System. He would know how to integrate such a system.into vehicles in the near future. Interesting times ahead for Apple and ground transportations systems in general. It might even have a future in the air and space transportation as well.

  3. taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

    Have to go with this is just CarPlay integration. Probably first started as wireless device support and now Apple Watch. Other things like unlocking your car using iWatch and iPhone.

    Wireless Cadplay will be key in allowing more car manufacturers to put car play in their vehicles.

    • o0smoothies0o - 9 years ago

      They’re hiring mechanical engineers and according to reports Jony’s team is meeting with automotive designers, etc. by the way CarPlay will be wireless in ios 8.3 according to 9to5mac. In other words, in a few months.

  4. Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

    Meh. This seems really, really uninteresting to me.

    All that work, with an accompanying lack of privacy, and for what? Once in a while your car will surprise you by already knowing yo want to go to Starbucks? Big deal.

    Effort-wise this is like a 10 on the “difficult engineering” scale, and yet the reward is almost nothing.

    • o0smoothies0o - 9 years ago

      What? Let’s say hypothetically your car could drive itself with next to zero risk of making any mistakes. You wouldn’t find it convenient to sit there and scroll endlessly on Facebook while it does so?

  5. bdkennedy11 - 9 years ago

    If Apple is working on a car, then they would have to be working on several cars to be competitive. I just don’t see it happening,

  6. Taste_of_Apple - 9 years ago

    Interesting. I don’t think a car is in their immediate future. Makes me all the more interested in these new hires.

  7. dondahlmann - 9 years ago

    Not really “breaking news”. JJ works at Apple since September 2014 ;)

  8. Apple CarPlay just like Google’s Android Auto are nothing more than virtual machine skins running on top of Blackberrry’s QNX Automotive platform which has dominated the car telemetrics / head-end market since day one of these products.

    QNX has an over 70% market share and is a real-time, multi-tasking, can’t fail OS unlike anything Apple or Google has or can produce. http://www.qnx.com/solutions/industries/automotive/infotainment.html

    • philboogie - 9 years ago

      Unsurpringly Blackberry had nothing to do with the development of QNX. Even worse, their procurement of QNX closed off the partially open source code, leaving many developers adrift.

  9. Philipp Edlinger - 9 years ago

    This is EXACTLY what we need!

    Futuristic thinking companies and people are finally going to start competing against each other who takes the lead in developing new stuff that’s actually great for our planet, us people and our childs in the future!
    Not this GM, BMW, AUDI, etc. stuff, that’s always the same bullsh*** and just about making money, depending on and working for the too mighty oil industry!, they really need to snap out of it and we have to call for it, the ressources and the technology already exist, wake up!

    – GO apple, GO tesla!

  10. mbyyz - 9 years ago

    Doesn’t the CarPlay experience remind you off the time when Apple tried to partner with Motorola, when they produced the Motorola ROKR E1 more than a decade ago?

    Unless Apple has more of a say when it comes to the user interface of a manufactured car dash, I honestly think the CarPlay feature is not fully utilized how Apple would want it. The experience falls short because of its belief that software and hardware work hand in hand. The early demos of CarPlay last year looked functional, but it looked far too complicated when it came to the dial navigator the car manufacture designed. It didn’t feel like a true Apple experience. Their technology needs the same amount of class and detail from the eyes of Apple’s design brain trust. Without it, it seems like a glass half empty, or half full. Depending which way you decide to look at it from.

  11. Matt J. Fuller - 9 years ago

    Perhaps this is why CarPlay has been a bit slow to get adopted. Rather than relying on current automakers, Apple has decided to build a car around their idea. Makes perfect sense.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.