Desi Ujkashevic, an engineer at Ford, left the company to work on the Apple car project. Ujkashevic has been with Ford for over 30 years, and she has expertise in safety systems, engineering design deliverables, body interior engineering, and more.
Prior to leaving Ford for Apple, she was the Global Director of Ford's automotive safety engineering office. From Ford's website.
In her previous role, she was the Engineering Director for North American Vehicle Programs where she was responsible for Engineering for Car and Utility Programs managing engineering design deliverables including achievement of cost, profit, quality, and timing objectives. Prior to this, Desi was the Global Director, Interiors Engineering where she led the Strategy, Program execution, Quality and launch for Interiors on all Global Programs. Previous to this, Desi completed a 3-year international assignment in Germany, serving as Ford's Director of Engineering for Body Systems and Design Operations.
Over the course of her career, Ujkashevic worked her way up the ranks. She was involved in the development of the Ford Escape, Explorer, Fiesta and Focus. She could be involved in helping Apple develop safeguards for electric vehicle, as she has a wealth of expertise that will benefit the Apple Car project.
Apple wants the Apple Car to be safer than cars from other companies, with backup systems to avoid driving system failures.
Apple has been hiring from Ford and other automotive companies for several years as it works to develop a fully autonomously driving vehicle. The Apple Car project has faced ongoing leadership issues and has shifted goals several times, but the latest rumors suggest that Apple is on track to deliver a vehicle sometime in the next decade.
Issues with the car development could delay the launch of the Apple product by as much as eight years.
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