Apple Leak Claims AI Boss Now Leading Titan Self-Driving Car Project

Apple's Project Titan, the codename for the autonomous driving division we've been hearing about for years, recently underwent a big change in leadership, according to a new report. The change was, at least according to sources, due to the full retirement of former Apple SVP of hardware engineering Bob Mansfield.

The Titan team of engineers have been moved under the leadership of Apple's AI executive John Giannandrea, according to sources speaking to Bloomberg, a switch that was allegedly spurred by Mansfield's full retirement.

Under the previous arrangement, Titan's daily operations lead Doug Field reported to Mansfield; under this change, the report claims, the team is now operating in Giannandrea's AI and machine learning group. Giannandrea worked for Google before making the transition to Apple.

Apple has been, by all accounts, working on an AI car project since 2014. Early reports claimed that Apple was looking to develop a full self-driving electric car akin to what we see from companies like Tesla, but that focus changed within a couple of years to settle on autonomous automotive technologies.

Years have passed and we've seen additional changes, such as a reduction in the workforce on the project, but Titan continues on with AI at its core. Based on California DMV records, Bloomberg notes, Apple has a 66-car fleet; it began testing its tech on public streets in 2017.