Apple hires Tesla exec for classified project

Apple is either well on its way to developing some sort of automobile or else is simply hiring top car talent for no apparent reason.
That's the conclusion increasingly being draw by the talent war being waged between Apple and Tesla in particular, two Silicon Valley neighbors and potentially product rivals.
The latest salvo is the news that a former Tesla vice president of vehicle engineering Chris Porritt, who made his name guiding some of Aston Martin's most elegant roadsters, has joined Apple in a senior position, according to a report Tuesday in sister publications 9to5Mac and Electrek.
Apple declined comment on the report.
Although a number of Tesla employees have defected to Apple over the past year - Tesla CEO Elon Musk has derisively called Apple the "Tesla graveyard," carping that Cupertino is where failed Tesla employees go to die - Porritt is the most senior exec to make the move, although according to the publications Porritt left Tesla some months ago.
Unnamed sources told the twin outlets that Porritt's title at Apple is Special Projects Group PD Administrator. While at Tesla, Porritt had a hand in designing all three models: S, X and the forthcoming entry level 3. At Aston Martin, Porritt worked on the iconic DB9 as well as the One-77 supercar.
Meanwhile, the quest to spot something resembling an Apple car during testing has become akin to seeking out Bigfoot.
TechRadar posted an item last week with a blurry photo of a Ford Transit van with a roof full of tech gear. The site speculated that the gear looked that Lidar - laser radar used in autonomous car tech - but added that the driver appeared to have his hands on the wheel.