GM Promotes 2 Ex-Apple Execs To Lead Software Development

Detroit-based General Motors Co. GM has promoted former Apple executives Baris Cetinok and Dave Richardson to head its Software and Services organization in a bid to advance connectivity in its vehicles, including EVs.

What Happened: The two executives joined GM in September 2023 and played significant roles in laying the groundwork for advancing GM’s vehicle software.

They are now being promoted to take over for the former executive vice president of software and services Mike Abbott. Abbott, also a former Apple executive, left GM in March 2024.

While Cetinok will oversee the teams responsible for the company's software roadmap design and the process for software program development and launch, Richardson will lead all of the software engineering, GM said in a statement.

Why It Matters: “As someone just as obsessed with speed and torque as I am with software product innovation, this has already been a dream job realized for me,” Cetinok, who has worked across companies including Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, wrote on LinkedIn about his promotion.

Apple, too, was looking to develop an electric car over the past several years. However, the company killed the project earlier this year following continued pressure from the company’s board.

The company reportedly spent roughly $1 billion annually for the past 10 years on the project nicknamed Project Titan. However, it never yielded a commercially viable product.

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