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Apple Inc. is continuing to pillage the automotive software expertise of Ottawa’s QNX Software Systems, quietly hiring the company’s co-founder and former chief executive Dan Dodge earlier this year.

Several workers in Ottawa’s technology community who know Dodge confirmed a Bloomberg News report, telling Postmedia that Dodge had joined Apple’s team focused on developing an automobile. The initiative is rumoured to be called “project Titan.”

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Dodge will be working directly with newly appointed project chief Bob Mansfield.

Mansfield, who formerly served as senior vice-president of hardware engineering and then senior vice-president of Technology for Apple, reports directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

When reached by Postmedia on Friday, officials at Apple refused to comment on the appointment or any of the company’s plans for an automobile.

Dodge, a private person who is known to avoid the media, founded QNX with his then-partner Gorden Bell in 1982. The pair started developing secure customized software for devices while studying at the University of Waterloo, and they later brought the software back to Ottawa, where QNX was created. The firm has been wildly successful at supplying customized operating systems for various devices: QNX software can be found in General Motors Corp. and Toyota Corp. cars, military vehicles, municipal power grids and home electronics.