Apple has hired Luigi Taraborrelli, a 20-year veteran of the Italian carmaker

Apple is making strides toward the development of its self-driving vehicles, as it has reportedly hired Lamborghini veteran Luigi Taraborrelli as a senior manager on its electric vehicle team. At Lamborghini, Taraborrelli has worked on the Urus, Huracan, and Aventador in addition to limited-edition Huracan Sterrato off-road vehicle and Asterion concept cars, SCMP reported.

He will help Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) design a self-driving vehicle, sources told the news outlet. It is planning to debut a vehicle around 2025, the report said. A “limousine-like” design may enable passengers to face each other in a fully automatic vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals. Many industry experts are not sure if it is possible to make this kind of automobile, however.

Apple’s electric car project has had a rocky past since its set up in 2014, suffering strategy rethinking, leadership issues and employee churn. Taraborrelli’s appointment at a very senior level in the car team shows that Apple is getting its act together, and also that the company may be looking for some racy styling for the proposed car.

Apple hired Desi Ujkashevic, the 31-year Ford (NYSE: F) veteran, as its vehicle safety chief a few months ago. He was in charge of safety efforts and vehicle engineering and had been working for Ford since 1991.

The iPhone giant also poached talent from troubled electric car maker Canoo, Tesla, and other auto makers.

It was not entirely one-sided, however – in 2021 Ford lured away Doug Field, who had headed Apple’s self-driving vehicle development for three years. After Doug departed, Apple placed the electric car division in the charge of Kevin Lynch, the head of its Watch and health software businesses.

In 2020, Apple’s head of marketing said the company “cares deeply” about Lamborghini, which had released an Apple-based augmented reality feature to help people preview the Huracan EVO RWD Spyder around the same time.

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