Tesla Nabs Apple Hardware Exec to Lead Vehicle Development

Just a week after eBay lured Apple e-commerce executive RJ Pittman to join its ranks, Apple has lost another member of its executive team.

Tesla Motors announced Thursday that it has hired Doug Field, who led Mac hardware development at Apple, to lead the company's development of new vehicles.

In his five years at Apple, Field led development of many new products including the latest MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iMac. He launched his career as an engineer at Ford and was also chief technology officer at Segway.

Field said his background in the automotive industry and his "dream of creating the best cars in the world" led him away from the consumer-electronics giant. “Until Tesla came along, I had never seriously considered leaving Apple," he said in a statement.

The electric car company is at the forefront of technology. Tesla's latest car, the Model S, received the highest safety rating of any car ever tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

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