Apple hiring engineers away from automotive mapping company

Over the last few months, Apple has hired at least six employees from Berlin-based Here, an automotive mapping company owned by Audi, BMW, and Daimler, Business Insider reports. One of the engineers, Konstantin Sinitsyn, declined to confirm how many people Apple had hired from Here, and no other employees responded to requests for comment. Apple doesn’t have an official office in Berlin, but in April a German website claimed the company was operating a secret facility in the city staffed by 15 to 20 “top-class” employees of the German automotive industry. At the time they were believed to be working on Apple’s Project Titan electric car project, but the company has since scaled back its automotive ambitions to focus on autonomous driving systems. Former employees from Here could be a natural fit within that scheme, with many of the new hires showing they’re assigned to the Apple Maps team on LinkedIn.