Apple has denied reports that it’s working on a car, but it now has the engineering know-how to design a pretty beautiful car.
A new report from Electrek and 9to5Mac today (April 19) says that Apple has hired Chris Porritt, the former vice president of engineering at Tesla to work on “special products” in Cupertino. Before joining the electric car company, Porritt worked at Land Rover and Aston Martin, and was the lead engineer for James Bond’s preferred brand of vehicle before heading to Silicon Valley in 2013. At Tesla, Porritt worked on the chassis for the company’s most recently released vehicle, the Model 3, according to Electrek.
Apple design chief Jony Ive apparently has a bit of a soft spot for Aston Martin cars, including owning (and crashing) one that was actually designed by Porritt—the Aston Martin DB9.
Apple has recently hired several Tesla engineers, as well as staff from other companies in the automotive industry, apparently for its rumored electric car initiative, which is being referred to internally as “Project Titan.”
Apple wasn’t immediately available to confirm Porritt’s hiring—or that the company is indeed working on a car—but if it isn’t, it may end up with some very automotive-looking laptops and phones.