VW snags leading self-driving car expert from Apple

Volkswagen has hired away one of Apple's top experts on autonomous vehicle technologies, signaling the German auto maker's intent to become a serious player in self-driving cars.

Johann Jungwirth was hired by Volkswagen to lead research into advanced technologies as head of its new Digitalization Strategy Department. He had been at Apple since September 2014, after heading North American R&D for Mercedes Benz.

The impact on Apple is hard to gauge since Apple hasn't even acknowledged it's working on an autonomous vehicle.

At Apple, Jungwirth's job title was director of Mac Systems Engineering, a role explained on his LinkedIn page in the briefest of ways: "focusing on building great Mac products."

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