The Cupertino company has hired since last April Alexander Hitzinger, formerly of Porsche and Red Bull to improve its project for autonomous driving systems
What do Apple and the well-known car manufacturer Porsche have in common? At first glance, nothing. Since last spring, however, the two companies can say that they have had the same engineer, it is Alexander Hitzinger. What scenarios does the future hold for Cupertino's "Titan" project?
Apple hires Porsche's engineer. Alexander Hitzinger from 2006 to 2011 worked as head for advanced technologies for Red Bull Technology. From 2006 until mid-2007 he was also the Technical Director of Toro Rosso, the Formula 1 team. In 2011 he moved to Porsche where he was in charge of the LMP1 project. With the German car manufacturer Hitzinger worked on the development of the 919 hybrid sports car. In addition, his work was used by the company to build the racing cars to be used in the 2015 Le Mans and 2016 World Endurance Championship. According to his LinkedIn profile, Hitzinger has been at Apple since last April.
Developments on the "Titan" project
Apple's "Titan" project is no secret. In Cupertino they have long thought about the creation of a car with autopilot. In the last period, the company has also spent a lot of money on researching the right technologies and especially on hiring the most experienced people to carry out the project. "Titan", however, has developed very slowly compared to expectations and Apple on more than one occasion has expressed its willingness to cut the project. According to several rumors, Apple has abandoned the idea of realizing an autonomous driving system on its own, but it is rather thinking of entering the market with hardware and software parts for cars. In addition, Hitzinger could be the link for two Cupertino fields, a driverless system and augmented reality. According to several sources within the company, it is precisely with augmented reality that Apple is experimenting with new assisted driving systems for the near future.