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Apple Car engineering manager departs for Meta role

The Apple Car has encountered another setback, with the loss of another engineering manager from the vehicle project to Meta.

The Apple Car has suffered from a consistent turnover of employees joining and leaving the long-rumored project, and it seems the pattern is set to continue in 2022. The head of software engineering for the Apple Car has reportedly exited Apple, in favor of a role at a competitor.

Joe Bass was the Lead Engineering Program Manager for Autonomous Systems at Apple since January 2015. As spotted by Mark Gurman in Bloomberg's "Power On" newsletter, he has changed his LinkedIn profile in January, showing he left Apple for a new position elsewhere.

After leaving Apple, he's now working at Meta, as the Director of Technical Program Management for Mixed Reality Technologies.

Bass departs shortly after a number of other engineers did the same in December. Initially, one senior director of engineering for the Special Projects Group left for electric plane startup Archer Aviation, shortly to be followed bytwo more at the same company, while one other left for Joby Aviation.

While it is speculated to be years before Apple ships an Apple Car to consumers, possibly doing so by 2025, it is thought that Apple could announce a strategic electric vehicle partnership sometime in 2022, which could lay the groundwork for the eventual launch.

Even with the high-profile recent departures, it's still plausible for an Apple Car launch to stay on schedule to meet forecasts.

8 Comments

lkrupp 20 Years · 10521 comments

Bosa said:
Apple Car has a new lead so the old people are leaving, pretty normal

That’s likely true but that’s not how this article is framing and spinning it.

2 Likes · 0 Dislikes
genovelle 17 Years · 1481 comments

lkrupp said:
Bosa said:
Apple Car has a new lead so the old people are leaving, pretty normal
That’s likely true but that’s not how this article is framing and spinning it.

Right! They were the other guys team and may have seen the writing on the wall and bailed before they got canned. They also may have seen their hopes at promotion to the Executive Level position fade into the darkness. 

2 Likes · 0 Dislikes
entropys 14 Years · 4453 comments

Why would you leave Apple for a meta though…money isn't everything.

6 Likes · 0 Dislikes
jumpingcoco 8 Years · 104 comments

The car industry is a huge pie, I doubt Apple would give up on it; but nobody knows what their objectives are, still a mystery... 

3 Likes · 0 Dislikes
michelb76 9 Years · 756 comments

entropys said:
Why would you leave Apple for a meta though…money isn't everything.

They have many interesting technical challenges. I wouldn't want to work for them but I think people like this can choose what they work on. Looks like he is going to work on their AR efforts, pretty cool.

3 Likes · 0 Dislikes