Apple hires ex-Mercedes engineers for 'Apple Car' Special Projects Group

Presumed to be for the "Apple Car," two former Mercedes engineers have been hired by Apple officially to work in the Special Projects Group.

Apple is already believed to have poached Porsche's vice president of chassis development, Dr. Manfred Harrer, to work on the "Apple Car." Now a new report says that two more high-profile Mercedes engineers have been recruited.

First spotted by MacRumors, one of the engineers is Dr. Anton Uselmann. Now a product design engineer at Apple, he formerly worked on car projects across mass production, dynamics, vehicle steering, and project management.

Prior to Mercedes, Dr. Uselmann earned his PhD while working for Porsche. By the end of his five years with the car company, he was working as a Function Developer in the Steering Systems group.

The second new hire has not been named, but is also said to have previously worked at Mercedes.

Separately, Mercedes has worked closely with Apple as it adds CarPlay and Apple Music features to its range.

The company is not expected to be involved with the production of the "Apple Car," however. Most recently, Apple has reportedly been speaking with Korean and Japanese firms about assembling the as-yet unannounced vehicle.

15 Comments

Kuyangkoh 838 comments · 7 Years

About 3 years ago

EX MB employees…..all exes??

pulseimages 652 comments · 8 Years

So the Apple Car is going to be overpriced like everything else they produce.

ravnorodom 720 comments · 8 Years

Apple should just take Ford's Mustang Mach-E and rebrand it as AppleCar with soup-up features and then lock those features until add-on subscriptions are activated. 40K SUV with base features to start.

lorca2770 72 comments · 15 Years

pulseimages said:

So the Apple Car is going to be overpriced like everything else they produce.

Don’t know, but I would think as overprices a company such as Samsung that does not have to expend billions of dollars to develop an OS, it gets it free since Android is free, and also copy most of the features, except for some developments as result of its industrial power. Talking of overpriced…., see the price difference and think how much more a all those copycats are making, in detriment of the American ingenuity. And talking also of ingenuity, go back to under your rock… se te vio el plumero!

mpantone 2243 comments · 18 Years

pulseimages said:

So the Apple Car is going to be overpriced like everything else they produce.

No one is forcing you at gunpoint to buy everything Apple makes. Go nuts and buy your gas-powered Honda Fit. The Fit is an excellent value.

If you haven't noticed Apple focuses on the premium tier of the markets they get involved in. They aren't making $50 feature phones or $300 notebook PCs. They make lots of money because they stick with the price tiers that generate the biggest margins. Pushing more cheap units off the loading dock isn't Apple's business plan.

ravnorodom said:

Apple should just take Ford's Mustang Mach-E and rebrand it as AppleCar with soup-up features and then lock those features until add-on subscriptions are activated. 40K SUV with base features to start.

Because Apple has a long and distinguished history of rebadging existing products produced by others, slapping a shiny Apple logo on it, and pushing it out the door.

Right.