Apple Hires Engineer From Digital License Plate Company for Car Project

[MacRumors]

One of Apple's recent hires is Rónán Ó Braonáin, who previously served as Director of Engineering at Reviver, a company that makes digital license plates. Braonáin joined the company in August, and as seen on his LinkedIn page, he's working on Apple Special Projects as a "Secret Agent." Presumably that means he's part of the team working on Project Titan, the codename for the Apple Car.

The profile, discovered by Electrek.co, says Braonáin led the Reviver engineering team for five months. Before that, he worked at Vision Fleet, building fleet management software to read data from electric vehicles, and prior to that, he was a software engineer at BMW working on connected car apps.

Reviver has produced Slate, a product dubbed "The World's First Digital License Plate." The Slate is a connected plate that's able to do things like monitor vehicle location and maintenance records and digitally send payments for tolls and parking fees. It also alleviates the need for physical stickers and manual registration processes.

Given Braonáin's short time at Reviver, it's not clear if Apple hired him for the work he did on digital license plate technology, but it's possible it's something Apple is considering for the Apple Car.

Braonáin is just one of dozens of hires with car-related expertise Apple has made in recent months. Apple has been hiring employees from companies like Chrysler, Tesla, NVIDIA, Volkswagen, and Ford, along with researchers who have expertise in autonomous vehicles and connected car systems.

Development on the Apple Car has sped up as of September of 2015, when the project reportedly received a "committed" label. Apple is said to be targeting a 2019 completion date for the project and will make additional hires in the coming months and years as work on the car continues.

Article Link: Apple Hires Engineer From Digital License Plate Company for Car Project

 

[TechGod]

"Secret agent" ROFL.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Secret Agent @ Apple Special Projects

I'm glad Apple is now letting them have a little fun with their LinkedIn profile.

 

[Crosscreek]

Apple trying to put the prisoners out of work....

 

[SSD-GUY]

Secret Agent? What is this? The ****ing FBI?

 

[Thunderhawks]

"Secret agent" ROFL.

N

"Secret agent" ROFL.

Móiré liké :

Sécrét áigént

RÓFL

 

[dylanwho]

Cónán O'Brién

 

[Chrjy]

It's becoming more and more difficult for Apple to keep their secrets secret! With the likes of LinkedIn and the internet in general it's relatively easy to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

I'm wondering if they'll ever come a time when people will know what Apple (or any other company) is going to do before they even know!

 

[nfl46]

Haha, so this car is really happening. I can't wait to see what Apple does. I'll wait on the $35K (Aka Tesla 3 version) version in 2025ish, though. Lol. They will probably start around $80K or more.

 

[Art Mark]

It's almost like Apple is building a car or something...of course it could just be a really big Macbook.

 

[Urban Joe]

Oh Brother...Big Brother. Here we go....
Given the propensity of gvt to abuse power, and often, we shouldn't go down this road.

 

[Pakaku]

It's almost like Apple is building a car or something...of course it could just be a really big Macbook.

"A car has batteries; it has a computer; it has a motor; and it has mechanical structure. If you look at an iPhone, it has all the same things. It even has a motor in it," said Fadell, who's now the chief executive officer of Alphabet's Nest home appliances company.

Obviously the next iPhone is going to have car tech inside. Or it'll be a Hot Wheels toy.

 

[pat500000]

Apparently, this guy looks like he failed traffic school. I'm worried about the iCar now.

 

[Jsameds]

Thátś á lót óf áććéńtś fór óńé ńámé.

 

[Nunyabinez]

Whàt thè frìck ìs úp wìth thè àccènts?

 

[joueboy]

I bet Californians hate the idea of digital license plate. Every traffic violations you get notification on your iPhone. Don't worry Apple Pay is just touch away to pay your dues. Haha!

 

[iPadCary]

The Apple Car will have Apple Watch-level success.

#TimMustGO

 

[yaboyac29]

I got it.

iPhone 7 will transform into a car.

 

[SteveAbootman]

Even though face value Apple building a car seems a bit preposterous, the more I think about it there's a chance it makes sense. They won't be the first player in the EV/Self Driving/Connected Car space and as a result are letting the likes of Google & Tesla do the heavy lifting up front in terms of manufacturing and R&D.

What Apple could do is use their immense influence and iOS platform to make a meaningful impact on areas other car makers aren't yet considering. Imagine being able to eliminate EZ-Pass (or the equivalent of other automated toll systems), ugly registrations and inspections stickers, and any type of gate scanners from your car and manage them all through your iPhone.

The possibilities of a complete integration of iOS into our cars is daunting yet exciting to think of what may be.

 

[mejsric]

The Apple Car will have Apple Watch-level success.

#TimMustGO

True! The time when Apple release Apple Car and won't sell 10millions in the first week and every iPhone owners did not own Apple Car! Tim must go!

 

[RobertMartens]

Secret Agent? What is this? The ****ing FBI?

Don't you mean FIB?

Whàt thè frìck ìs úp wìth thè àccènts?

It's a cultural thing. Like dejavu and cafe. You don't really need them but they spruce up even the most boring name.

I'll prove it, Conan O'Brian. Nothing right? Now look, Rónán Ó Braonáin, óoh lá la, hot!

 

[igrover]

Apple needs to fix their ******* watch software first and all the other crap software problems they have before they start on something like a car. Seriously. Their hardware division is shoulders above the competition however their software always appears to be a few steps behind.

Not sure I would ever buy an Apple car given their record of finally fixing things in the second or third generation.

 

[JustThinkin']

Since Apple can't invent anything anymore, they dig up this old project that Steve rejected. They'll add a few bells and whistles and call their version of a 100+ year old product "new" and "innovative!"

I guess Steve couldn't find the right type of person to replace him, so he left the company in the hands of a bean-counter who'd make sure the ship went down S-L-O-W-L-Y.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Seems like they may be going the route of owning a fleet and renting out time. Would go along with a big strength of the digital plate, being able to manage a fleet easily.

 

[0007776]

Apple needs to fix their ******* watch software first and all the other crap software problems they have before they start on something like a car. Seriously. Their hardware division is shoulders above the competition however their software always appears to be a few steps behind.

Not sure I would ever buy an Apple car given their record of finally fixing things in the second or third generation.

You do realize that it is different engineers working on different projects, right? This guy is from the automotive industry, you wouldn't want him touching the software on the watch.