Recent changes in Lamborghini Research and Development veteran Luigi Taraborrelli’s LinkedIn profile show that he is going to Apple. The flipping comes after his experience with the Italian Carmaker is around twenty years. For over a year it was rumored that he is going to help the tech giant with its self-driving electric vehicle.
Officially Taraborrelli has led Lamborghini’s vehicle dynamics and chassis department since January 2008. During his time with Lamborghini, Taraborrelli helped collaborate with other members of the team on the development of the Urus, Huracan Coupé, Spyder, 2WD, Performante, EVO, STO, Aventador Coupé, Roadster, Superveloce, and SVJ, and the Limited series Sterrato, Centenario, Asterion, Veneno, J, and VI Elemento. Taraborrelli said Lamborghini has been working to develop vehicle chassis for plug-in hybrid designs since 2015. Additionally, the team started to develop autonomous driving features, like Active Cruise Control, Lane-Keeping, Lane Departure Warning, and Emergency Assist, in 2016.
Apple, on the other hand, is just making another move, flexing its corporate muscles to convince another automotive industry vet to move toward their EV development project. Ford has successfully hired employees from Ford, Tesla, Rivian, Waymo, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and others. The company is reportedly heading toward introducing an all-electric, self-driving car by 2025.
Apple’s talent
Some of Apple’s talent has also left to join other automotive startups. Eric Rogers, who was the company’s Chief Engineer for Radar Systems, was hired by Joby Aviation, an air taxi startup. Lamborghini plans to invest $1.8 billion into electrification, with its main goal to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by the beginning of 2025.
The engineers include Eric Rogers, who was Apple’s chief engineer for radar systems. Rogers was hired by air taxi startup Joby Aviation Inc. Alex Clarabut, who served as Apple’s engineering manager for the long-rumored electric car’s battery systems group, left for Archer Aviation, another air taxi company. Stephen Spiteri, who worked as a hardware engineering manager at Apple, joined Clarabut on Archer.
Both Joby Aviation Inc. and Archer Aviation have confirmed the appointments of the former Apple engineers. Apple, for its part, is yet to issue a formal comment about the topic, as noted in a Bloomberg report. However, the experiences of first movers like Tesla suggest that launching a vehicle and ramping its production is no small task. And with an exodus of talent, the vehicle’s development could become more challenging. After all, Rogers, Clarabut, and Spiteri are only the latest departures from Apple. Six Apple Car management team members left this year, including Doug Field, who was heading the project. Other members of the team have joined EV companies such as Rivian as well. The hiring and re-hiring process is more common among companies than it appears to be.
