Tesla has grabbed top talent from Apple's Mac hardware team to help lead the development of new high-tech vehicles. Doug Field, who served as Apple's vice president of Mac hardware engineering, will now be Tesla's vice president of vehicle programs.
"Tesla’s future depends on engineers."
Though he may not be one of the big faces at Apple, Tesla says that Field led development on the latest MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iMac, among other projects. Tesla isn't quite as broad of a jump for Field as it might seem, however: though he's been working at Apple for over five years now, Field actually started in the auto industry at Ford, and later worked at Segway as its chief technology officer, according to Gawker.
"Tesla’s future depends on engineers who can create the most innovative, technologically advanced vehicles in the world," Tesla CEO Elon Musk says in a statement. Field says that he hadn't considered leaving Apple up until Tesla came along, but that it's always been his goal to work on building incredible cars.
As Musk puts it, Field's experience in both automotive technology and consumer technology makes him a great fit for Tesla, which has a history of putting cutting-edge consumer technology into its equally cutting-edge vehicles.