Ex-Tesla Engineer Leaves ‘Apple Car’ in Favor of Air Taxi Startup Archer

Ex-Tesla engineer, who joined Apple's car project, left the Cupertino giant in favor of an electric air taxi startup that goes by the name Archer.

Ex-Tesla Engineer Leaves 'Apple Car'

The director of engineering in the Apple Special Projects Group, Michael Schwekutsch, who is reportedly working on the self-driving feature of the Apple car, ends his stint with the iPhone maker.

The former vice president of engineering at Tesla, Schwekutsch, joined the secretive car project of the Cupertino tech giant way back in March 2019, as per the news story by MacRumors.

Apple Car's Key Engineer Joins Air Taxi Startup

This time around, the former Tesla exec is changing ships again to fill in the post of vice president of engineering in an electric air taxi startup, Archer, according to the LinkedIn profile update of Sckwekutsh.

The ex-Apple Car exec said in a post that "it was time for a new challenge."

He went on to announce that he has joined the air taxi startup based in Palo Alto, which makes "creating a solution for sustainable air mobility" the "next big challenge" that the former exec of Apple Car is boldly facing.

On top of that, the former Tesla and Apple exec further noted that his experiences in both tech giants would help him with his new journey with Archer.

Schwekutsch and Tesla

As per the news story by CNBC, the former VP of engineering at the EV giant of billionaire Elon Musk holds over a hundred patents of vehicle design.

What's more, Schwekutsch also worked on the prototypes of the Tesla Plaid systems before he went on to work with Apple's car project.

In addition to that, the ex-Tesla and Apple guy also worked with the electric drive systems of other automakers, such a BMW and Porsche--among other brands.

Apple Car Leadership Changes

MacRumors noted in the same report that the leadership of Apple's car project has seen multiple changes in the past few years.

Just recently, or last September, the vice president for special projects at Apple Car, Doug Field, also ended his three-year stint at the Cupertino giant to join the ranks of an American carmaker, Ford.

It is worth noting that the departure of Field, who is also a former Tesla veteran, marks the fourth exec departure in the special and secretive project of Apple.

On top of that, last Nov. 25, Apple lost another exec in its car project after its global head of battery developments, Soonho Ahn, joined Volkswagen.

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Written by Teejay Boris