Apple's ambition to develop driverless cars becomes increasingly clear, poaching another Tesla engineer, who may be responsible for car software UI

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According to foreign media The Verge, Tesla's senior designer Andrew Kim resigned and joined Apple.

This year, several employees have jumped from Tesla to Apple, including Tesla's chief engineer Doug Field, who joined Apple in August.

Andrew Kim was responsible for user interface design at Microsoft, and he contributed to Microsoft's Windows 10 UI, AR glasses HoloLens, and game console Xbox One S. After working at Microsoft for three and a half years, he joined Tesla and participated in the design of Model 3, S, X, and Y.

Andrew Kim's LinkedIn profile confirms he joined Apple this month, but does not reveal his specific position, while his Instagram confirms his first day at Apple Park was last Tuesday.

Based on his work experience, the media speculated that he might be responsible for the rumored Apple AR glasses, or Apple’s car project “Project Titan”.

If Kim joins Apple's car team, he will most likely be responsible for the user experience of autonomous driving software.

Well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that Project Titan is Apple’s long-rumored car project, which started in 2014. He expects Apple Car to be on the market between 2023 and 2025.

Apple has had a keen interest in self-driving cars for years, but Project Titan has shifted its focus from designing its own car hardware to self-driving software.

The company is rumored to have cancelled its physical car hardware team in 2016 to focus on working with existing automakers to deploy autonomous driving software. Some media have spotted Apple driverless cars modified from other brands on the streets.

Tim Cook recently clarified that Apple's ambitions are bigger than cars, highlighting "autonomous driving systems" as the "mother" of all machine learning projects that would benefit Apple's current work.

Just months after Tesla's chief vehicle engineer Doug Field returned to Apple, Apple has poached Andrew Kim again, indicating that the company's ambitions in the automotive field may be changing again.