Sources: Apple has appointed longtime Apple Watch and Health software chief Kevin Lynch as the new head of its Apple Car project after Doug Field's departure
- Kevin Lynch replaces Doug Field as head of Apple's car efforts — Field left Apple's project after three years to work at Ford
BloombergMark Gurman
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's car project has cycled through leadership before: Bob Mansfield took it over in 2016, Doug Field returned from Tesla in 2018 to work under him, and when Mansfield retired, AI chief John Giannandrea took oversight with Field running things day to day (December 2020). In July, reports said software VP Kevin Lynch was being pulled in to help lead the effort (July 2021) — a signal that read as reinforcement at the time.
Two days ago that reading inverted: Ford announced it had hired Field as its chief advanced technology and embedded systems officer, and this report confirms Lynch — the Watch and Health software veteran — now heads the car project outright rather than merely assisting.
First-order effects
Kevin Lynch moves from supporting role to sole leadership of the car program, putting a software-and-services executive in charge of an effort previously steered by hardware figures like Mansfield and Field.
Ford gains Field's combined Tesla and Apple engineering background just as Apple loses its most credentialed automotive hire, a direct swap of senior car talent between a tech company and a legacy automaker.
Second-order effects
Lynch inherits a project whose day-to-day automotive expertise just walked across the street, likely forcing Apple to recruit more deeply from the traditional auto industry to rebuild bench strength.
Ford's hire sets up a competitive wrinkle: the executive who ran Apple's car efforts day to day now shapes advanced technology at an incumbent automaker, tightening the talent overlap between the two programs.
Third-order effects
The succession chain since 2016 — hardware executive, then AI researcher overseeing, then software leader — points to Apple still searching for the right organizational shape for a car program, with each change reshuffling whether hardware, AI, or software leads.
If legacy automakers keep pulling senior talent out of big-tech vehicle programs, the labor market for autonomous-car leadership consolidates around a shared pool spanning both industries, blurring which side owns the expertise.
The trend: Consumer tech and legacy automakers are competing over the same small pool of self-driving-car executives, with leadership churn at Apple's car project mirroring Ford's push to import Silicon Valley engineering leadership.
Apple appoints Kevin Lynch to oversee Project Titan. Those who read yesterday's Above Avalon daily update would not be surprised by the news as I talked about that exact scenario including the *why* behind such a move. https://www.aboveavalon.com/ ... ($) https://twitter.com/...
All you have to do to understand why Kevin Lynch is a terrific choice for Titan (Apple Car) is watch this interview where he talks about ever-more personal compute, making complex information glanceable, and shipping new product categories. https://www.youtube.com/...
The sequence of events around Apple Car team changes are more clear. I now believe Doug Field got hired away by Ford. Doug gave Tim Cook time to move Kevin Lynch over before the news broke.
Most importantly, Apple wants to be in the auto business. Kevin is a major talent at Apple, and Cook moved him over to auto because Apple wants to put another dent in the universe. If they do, I see upside to my $200 view of AAPL stock over the next several years.
@neilcybart Lynch knows how to present complex information in easy to glance ways. Plus, he deeply gets the movement of computers to ever more personal and powerful parts of out life.
Lynch is sharp but with basically no auto-industry experience I wonder if he's there to “drive” Apple Car forward or wind it down and scavenge for parts for other Apple projects. https://twitter.com/...
@markgurman Kevin's team has delivered arguably the most solid piece of Apple Hardware+Software in years in the Apple Watch and health app. Not many better to take over IMO
@RayRedacted It became clear that Lynch knew what he was doing with those initial Apple Watch years. Both Apple's design thinking when it came to using technology on the wrist and the degree to which Apple took lessons learned to evolve the platform.
NEWS: Apple is developing its electric vehicle independently without the assistance of another automaker and is currently selecting final parts suppliers, according to sources said to be familiar with Apple's plans speaking to Korea's Maeil Economic Daily. https://www.macrumors.c…
From railing against Apple as a railroad tycoon to leading the Apple Car project. Kevin Lynch is now but one step away from the inevitable Apple Train project. https://techcrunch.com/... https://twitter.com/...
New story: Apple taps longtime Apple Watch and Health software chief Kevin Lynch as the new head of its Apple Car project after Doug Field's departure. https://www.bloomberg.com/...