Apple’s EV program is also about payments

The computing giant has officially hired Desi Ujkashevic, Global Director of Safety Engineering at Ford, to join Apple’s efforts to develop a fully electric autonomous car. Ujkashevic had worked at Ford for 31 years.

Why should we care?
Ujkashevic is just the latest exec to be poached from Ford to build out Apple’s EV project—and some former Apple execs have gone the other direction, joining Ford’s efforts to do the same thing. Though Ujkashevic specifically will help the company meet regulatory requirements for testing by building out safety protocols, Ujkashevic’s onboarding may signal that Apple wants to copy other parts of Ford’s strategy, including its fintech-focused initiatives. In January, Ford announced a five-year partnership with Stripe (yes, Stripe again) to revamp the car company’s e-commerce strategy. Ford sees its EVs like the F-150 Lightning as payments hardware, which can let customers pay for Ford-specific or partnered services through vehicles directly. With Apple dead-set on expanding its payments products through hardware—iPhones as POS terminals and the like—establishing dominance in the autonomous driving space would offer yet another gateway for Apple to see its financial products take off. If EU regulators have a say in the matter, though, Apple will have to let its competitors access its payments mainframe as well.