Apple self-driving car project gets a new boss

Rumors about self-driving car technology from Apple have been circulating for years. It's still unknown what Apple eventually plans to do with this technology but Bloomberg reports today that the project has seen a change of leadership. Former project chief Bob Mansfield has fully retired from Apple and Titan -- the codename of Apple's self-driving technology -- is now headed by top artificial intelligence executive John Giannandrea.

Apple poached Giannandrea from Google, he's in charge or Siri and machine learning technologies across Apple products.

Giannandrea joined Apple in 2018 as its vice president of AI Strategy and Machine Learning before being promoted to Apple’s executive team as a senior vice president later that year. He ran Google’s machine-learning and search teams before that. At Apple, in addition to the car project, he is in charge of Siri and machine-learning technologies across Apple’s products.

CEO Tim Cook acknowledged the autonomous driving project in a 2017 interview with Bloomberg and called it the "mother of all AI projects" and "a core technology that we view as very important."

Development of self-driving car technology at Apple has continued, albeit with fewer employees. Sources close to Apple claim the firm has evaluated plans to launch its own-brand car, build the self-driving system for a partner, or create an after-market kit that works with various brands.

The Cupertino-based consumer electronics giant has been testing autonomous driving tech on public roads since 2017. Data from the California Department of Motor Vehicles reveals Apple's fleet totaled 66 cars in 2019, eleven more than in mid-2018. The total number of driven test miles declined though.