Apple enlisted Kevin Lynch to help lead its work on self-driving cars



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  • Apple’s Kevin Lynch, vice president of technology, was asked to help lead his work on the cars.
  • Apple is said to be revamping its autonomous car project and parts of its healthcare division are undergoing major changes.
  • Lynch, architect of the Apple Watch, shaped the giant’s health and wearable strategy.

Apple’s vice president of technology Kevin Lynch has been asked to help with the tech giant’s secret car project, four people familiar with the matter told Insider.

Lynch is one of the architects of the Apple Watch. In 2013, he was recruited specifically to take the product from an idea to a reality. He is widely credited with helping define a new product category for Apple, “wearables,” which now bring in billions of dollars per quarter.

Prior to Apple, he was CTO at Adobe, where he helped bring Creative Cloud, a series of apps for photography and more to life, according to Lynch’s biography. He also ran software at Macromedia, a similar company, which Adobe bought in 2005 for $ 3.4 billion.

In addition to leading watchOS, Lynch is one of a handful of vice presidents shaping Apple’s health strategy.

His work with the auto division started months ago, one of the people said. His title of vice president of technology has not changed and he will remain involved in intelligence and health, according to one of the people. It’s unclear how Lynch’s new focus on car efforts will affect his day-to-day responsibilities with these teams.

Apple declined to comment on Insider’s information that Lynch is working on the car project and how that might affect his other roles.

Apple is said to be revamping its self-driving car development work, and parts of its healthcare division are undergoing major changes. Pressure has been on Apple in recent years to carve out new categories of devices as demand for smartphones, the bulk of Apple’s revenue, has slowed. She turned to new divisions like health and projects like the car to further consolidate her future.

Apple recruits experts for its automotive project

Apple is developing electric car technology, several outlets have reported over the years.

CEO Tim Cook vaguely acknowledged some aspects of the auto project. In an interview with the New York Times in April, Cook said he would be shy about Apple’s work with autonomous driving.

“We’ll see what Apple does,” he said.

In 2014, Apple set out to make an Apple Car to compete with Tesla, but it scaled back its ambitions around 2016 to focus more on the underlying autonomous driving technology, Bloomberg and Reuters reported.

In recent months, Apple has set a goal of producing a passenger vehicle that could be launched as early as 2024, Reuters reported in December.

Apple has recruited auto experts to bolster the division’s leadership team, which saw a few notable departures earlier this year, Bloomberg reported. Vice President Doug Field, formerly of Tesla, heads the division and reports to John Giannandrea, senior vice president of machine learning and AI, according to Bloomberg.

Lynch still reports to Jeff Williams, chief operating officer of Apple, two of the people told Insider. It’s not clear if Lynch, as a software expert, oversees the car itself or some other aspect of automotive work.

Lynch has been a key part of Apple’s health work

Lynch’s team is known, among other projects, for their work creating the Health app, which debuted in 2014, and coding the EKG function, designed to test the electrical activity of the rhythm. cardiac and check for atrial fibrillation. Other teams are building the algorithms behind the health sensors.

Lynch has taken a step back from Williams Health Staff, a team of VPs of Health that includes Dr. Sumbul Desai, responsible for care delivery and regulation; Myra Haggerty, who runs the algorithms; Eugene Kim, the head of watchmaking equipment; and other essential drivers of the health strategy.

Evan Doll, director of healthcare software engineering, will replace Lynch, one of the people said. Since working on the car project, Lynch has spent much less time on his health, two people said.

This story has been updated to show that Lynch’s role on the automotive project began several months ago.

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