One of Apple’s newest employees, who goes by the name Rónán Ó Braonáin, isn’t just an Irishman and a self-described “secret agent,” he also spent three years at BMW before working as a director of engineering for a San Francisco-based company that developed digital license plates. With this kind of background, it’s pretty obvious that Ó Braonáin is helping Apple with its ultra-secret car, and having previously worked on digital license plates, it’s reasonable to assume that Apple is considering adding that technology to its upcoming car.
Apple has a new “secret agent” among its ranks. Rónán Ó Braonáin, who joined the Cupertino company four months ago, was previously a director of engineering for a company that makes digital license plates, and it’s thought his new role could have something to do with the rumored Apple Car project. Apple has hired dozens of people with automotive experience in recent years, which has only fueled the rumors surrounding an Apple Car. But its latest is particularly interesting, because it suggests that a future Apple vehicle could sport digital license plates that provide things like location tracking and automatic registration. Ó Braonáin previously worked for a San Francisco company called Reviver, which is behind Slate, the digital license plate that promises to automate your fleet. Slate registers all the vehicles in your fleet automatically, provides safety alerts, lets you monitor a vehicle’s maintenance records and location, and more. Before his five-month stay at Reviver, Ó Braonáin was a software engineer at BMW, then a chief technology officer at Vision Fleet, a company that provides businesses with electric fleet management software and financing. Ó Braonáin has bags of experience in vehicle management, then.
