On May 26, according to AppleInsider reports, Apple announced that Christopher "CJ" Moore, a former Tesla Autopilot engineer who joined Apple's car project last year, has left Apple to join Orlando, Florida. As the new head of software at the lidar company Luminar, Moore has only been at Apple for less than seven months.

　　The departure is the latest personnel shake-up in Apple's automotive division, which has undergone numerous changes over the past few years. Earlier this month, Ian Goodfellow, another head of Apple's car program, also left to join DeepMind, which is owned by Google parent Alphabet.

　　Last year, the project leader, Doug Field, left Apple to join Ford. He was later named head of digital systems for Ford's new Model E electric and autonomous vehicle division. Kevin Lynch, formerly CTO at Adobe, was named Field's successor.

　　A few weeks later, in November 2021, Moore left Tesla to join Apple to work on Autopilot software, reporting to another Tesla expat, Stuart Bowers, who had previously Serve as Vice President of Engineering. Moore's departure shows that while Apple is struggling to retain talent to complete the self-driving car project known as Project Titan, it appears to be in a quandary.

　　Although Apple's car project started in 2014, it looks like their driverless car development is still in the early stages. Last year, Bloomberg reported that Apple had completed "most of the key development work" on a new processor intended for use in its self-driving trams. Project Titan now aims to build a self-driving car without a steering wheel.

　　In early May, it was reported that Apple did not plan to position AppleCar in the high-end electric car market priced above $100,000 to compete with Tesla's Model S. In addition, related reports also mentioned some new features of Apple's cars, including the use of high-quality titanium alloys, and the transformation of the iPhone into a car key. Some media said that the official launch of Apple's car will still be in 2025 or the end of 2024, and the order is likely to be entrusted to Foxconn's long-term partner Foxconn's parent company Hon Hai Group.

　　According to foreign media reports on May 3, Desi Ujkashevic, a senior executive in charge of safety and vehicle engineering at Ford, officially joined Apple Cars. An Apple spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Moore's departure.

　　Luminar primarily makes lidar for autonomous vehicles, and Luminar CEO Austin Russell said in a statement: “We are attracting the best leaders in every field in the world to execute on our vision and Enabling the future of transportation.” In addition to Moore, it hired Taner Ozcelik, a veteran of Nvidia’s automotive business, to lead product development. Moore will lead Luminar's global software development, leading software teams to develop self-driving safety features that integrate with lidar or laser sensors.

　　Luminar, which went public in a $3.4 billion reverse merger in 2020, has signed deals with Mercedes-Benz, Volvo Cars and SAIC to supply laser sensors to enable semi-autonomous driving in passenger cars.

　　Tesla CEO Musk has often ridiculed lidar and laid a "pure vision solution" for his own FSD (fully autonomous driving), he believes that radar is like a "crutch" and a "stupid thing" ". However, there are rumors that Luminar has a partnership with Tesla.