Apple has hired Jaime Waydo, a high-profile senior engineer of Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving vehicle unit, according to The Information. The article says her hiring could elevate the stature of the tech giant’s self-driving car efforts.
It also signals that the company may be making progress toward launching a prototype vehicle, The Information opines. The Sellers Research Group (that’s me) is dubious that we’ll actually see an “Apple Car.” Instead, I think Apple will work with car manufactures on vehicle hardware and software. Last month it was reported that the tech giant had signed a deal with Volkswagen to make self-driving cars after BMW and Mercedes-Benz reportedly rebuffed the tech giant’s requests to hand over control of the data and design of the planned cars, The New York Times reports.
At Waymo, Waydo was responsible for checking the safety of prototypes, and helped coach the company on when it was okay to begin real-world road tests in Phoenix.
Waymo began as the Google self-driving car project in 2009. Today, it’s an independent self-driving technology company.
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