Apple has secured Luigi Taraborrelli, former head of research and development at Lamborghini, to work on its first self-driving car: Project Titan.
In development for nearly a decade, Project Titan is said to have gone through a multitude of changes in direction since first being green-lit by Tim Cook back in 2014, according to Forbes.
Taraborrelli’s LinkedIn shows he has over two decades of experience working in engineering in the automotive field. He has worked on everything from development and validation to sales and marketing, and most recently, chassis and vehicle dynamics.
In the past, Tesla publicly signaled it wanted to pair up with Apple. Elon Musk confirmed rumors that it desired a partnership in 2020, stating that Tim Cook “refused to take the meeting” with him. Cook denied this a few months later, claiming the two had never met but that he held respect for Musk and Tesla.
Apple’s Project Titan has been through several iterations over the years, with many personnel joining and leaving the project since its inception.
Some past employees of Project Titan include engineers from automotive companies such as Rivian Automotive Inc., Waymo, Mercedes-Benz Group, and staff from BMW, Aston Martin, Porsche, McLaren, and Tesla.
Lamborghini and Apple have collaborated in the past. Back in 2020, Lamborghini released an augmented-reality feature with Apple.
The suspected release date for the Titan Project is projected to be sometime in 2025, with a rumored minivan to be introduced alongside a car.
Bloomberg reported that the interior of Apple’s self-driving car aspires to be “limousine-like” and could come “without a steering wheel or pedals” to make the vehicle fully autonomous.