Ford Motor hires Apple's long-rumored EV group leader Doug Field

Ford Motor Co. has hired Doug Field away from Apple to become its chief advanced technology and embedded systems officer.

Field will oversee efforts including vehicle controls, enterprise connectivity, and driver assistance technology, and will report to Ford CEO Jim Farley.

For the past three years, Field was a vice president in Apple's "Special Projects Group," and is widely reported to have been leading the iPhone maker's program to build an autonomous, electric vehicle.

Although Apple has not publicly discussed its EV efforts, its project, dubbed Titan, has been rumored for years.

Field previously held senior engineering roles at Tesla and Segway.

From 1987 to 1993, Field was a development engineer for Ford.

Ford expects 40 percent of the vehicles it would sell to be electric by 2030 and has laid out plans to invest tens of billions of dollars in electric and autonomous vehicle efforts.

Apple declined to comment on whether anyone would take Field's place.

Apple spokesperson Josh Rosenstock said the company was grateful for Field's contributions.