Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), recently lost an important group of engineers who had been working on the development of the autonomous guidance system for automobiles for several years. They left the Apple company for a startup called Zoox, 17 engineers leaving from those in Cupertino, so we are talking about a change that will seriously affect the activity of the Apple company in terms of the development of the autonomous guidance system for cars.
Apple hired most of these engineers from car manufacturers in Detroit, they are specialized in the development of both autonomous and classic cars. Many of the engineers were hired by the former leader of the Apple team developing this project, he employed almost 600 people before leaving the team, only to return in the meantime, but in a completely different position.
Apple was left without a group of important engineers
Apple lost these engineers to Zoox, which develops exactly the same technologies, but does not have funds as large as those in Cupertino. Zoox has collected funding of 290 million dollars to support its activity, but of course it does not have the resources that those at Apple have at the moment, so the engineers' decision is most likely based on something other than financial reasons .
Apple had a lot of bad luck in the Titan project initiated 3 years ago, starting from the idea of developing an electric and autonomous car, but remaining in the development of an autonomous guidance system. Apple has invested several billion dollars so far, having 1000 employees working on the technology, but despite all this, it remains 3 years behind Google in terms of the technology itself.
"The 17 engineers specialize in designing elements present in both traditional and autonomous vehicles, such as braking and suspension systems, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the moves aren't public. Many of them originally joined Apple from Detroit carmakers and suppliers. A Zoox representative declined to comment."
