Apple Inc said it re-hired Doug Field after the executive spent about five years at Tesla Inc in charge of vehicle engineering.
The hire is a significant one for Apple, with Field likely joining the company’s car unit, known as Project Titan. Apple kicked off an ambitious effort to develop a self-driving car around 2015 to take on Tesla and Detroit. After opening up new offices, car engineering machine shops, and hiring thousands of engineers, Apple shifted away from building a car to focus on underlying self-driving technology.
Field, one of four top executives named in Tesla’s proxy, left the electric automaker in late June after taking an extended leave of absence. Last year, Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk tasked him with overseeing both engineering and production, and Field made headlines in March with an e-mail to workers that urged them to “prove a bunch of haters wrong” by boosting Model 3 output. But by April, Musk had taken direct control of manufacturing and in May, the company said Field was on leave to spend time with his family and “recharge.”
Field, 53, previously worked at Apple as a top hardware engineer for both product design and Mac computers from 2008 until 2013 when he left for Tesla. Prior to Apple, Field was the chief technology officer for Segway. Upon hiring him from Apple, Musk praised Field, who had said he’d never “seriously considered leaving Apple” until he was offered the top Tesla engineering role.
Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr confirmed Field has re-joined Apple, but didn’t say what he is working on. The hire was earlier reported by website Daring Fireball.
Apple’s self-driving technology is now at the centre of a lawsuit involving a former engineer who allegedly stole self-driving technology materials and brought them to a Chinese car company. The lawsuit revealed that Apple has a few thousand engineers on the project and that it is still growing strong.
In 2016, Bob Mansfield, Apple’s former chief engineer who had attempted to retire from the company multiple times, returned to lead the car project. He immediately shuttered the teams working on the physical car hardware. He determined it would be best to work on the underlying technology and then later decide if the company would return to building a vehicle or partner with an existing car maker.
The return of Field could indicate that Apple is, once again, working on actual car hardware. Given his extensive experience in the industry as an engineering manager, Field could also be an eventual replacement for Mansfield, who, while in charge of the self-driving car project, has not run it on a day-to-day basis.




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