Apple hires longtime Ford executive for its automotive project

Apple hires a top manager from Ford. The Apple car project still seems to be alive.

It has long been rumored that the American giant Apple is working on a project in the automotive industry. Is it a car or technology that will be offered to existing manufacturers? It’s hard to say, but in recent years, the Cupertino company has built a large team of specialists, poaching here and there industry leaders.

Apple Hires Ford Executive

Apple today hired a longtime Ford engineer and executive to work on its automotive project. This was reported by Bloomberg. Desi Uikashevich has been with Ford since 1991. Before leaving the company in March, she held the very important position of Ford’s Global Director of Automotive Safety Engineering.

Her responsibilities included leading the vehicle safety engineering team for Ford Europe and the global engineering team. In his early years at Ford, according to his LinkedIn profile, Desi Uikaszewicz was involved in vehicle engineering, testing, and durability, among other things. She has also worked on various EV initiatives and regulatory issues. In other words, Desi Uikashevich seems to represent the typical profile that an electric vehicle project might need.

Apple car project still seems to be alive

Apple explained that it started working on an autonomous vehicle in 2015. That being said, this project has suffered a number of setbacks over the years, in part due to changes in strategy and the reorganization of its teams. Doug Field, who we learned left Project Titan, left Apple to join Ford last September. However, this hiring of Desi Uikaszewicz is another sign that the Cupertino-based company is still trying to develop its own electric car.

And for what it’s worth, in a recent LinkedIn post, Desi Uikaszewicz said she “can’t wait to start [her] new adventure and [she] looks forward to continuing to contribute to society and advance technology to make it a better world!””