Apple’s top-secret automobile project has lost another executive

Christopher “CJ” Moore, a former Tesla Autopilot software developer who departed last year to join Apple’s classified auto project, has joined Luminar, an Orlando, Florida-based lidar business, as its new director of software, according to the company. Moore was only at Apple for seven months.

Moore is one of a number of prominent executives who have joined Luminar, a company that develops laser sensors that enable autonomous vehicles “see” their surroundings. But his departure from Apple is another another sign of the company’s challenges to retain personnel for Project Titan, its befuddling attempt to build an autonomous electric automobile.

In a statement, Luminar CEO Austin Russell remarked. An Apple spokeswoman did not reply to a request for comment right away, “We’re attracting the best leaders in the world in their fields to execute our vision and deliver on the future of transportation.”

The resignation is the latest in a series of changes for Apple’s automotive business, which has seen multiple personnel changes in recent years.

Doug Field, the project’s leader, departed Apple last year to join Ford, where he was later named director of digital systems for the automaker’s new Model E electric and autonomous car business. Field was replaced by Kevin Lynch, who led Apple’s Watch group after serving as CTO of Adobe.

Russell, Luminar’s youthful CEO, has also questioned Musk’s promises of autonomy. Russell dubbed Tesla’s sophisticated driver assist systems “best in class” in an interview with The Verge last year, but said that the firm had “dug itself into a really deep hole” by incorrectly dubbing its current version of Autopilot “Full Self-Driving.” Russell sometimes refers to himself as the “chief autonomous industry skeptic.”

Luminar is said to have a cooperation with Tesla, despite Musk’s outspoken dismissal of lidar as a “crutch” and a “fool’s errand.” Last year, one of Luminar’s rooftop lidar sensors was seen on a Tesla Model Y in Florida.

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