Kim's hiring and the renewed car rumors come in conjunction with several other hires by Apple, along with several patent filings. Doug Fields, a chief vehicle engineer at Tesla, had taken a leave of absence over the summer, but did not return, instead starting work at Apple in August. Fields had previously worked at Apple until 2013 when he jumped ship to Tesla. Apple also managed to acquire Jaime Waydo, a senior engineer from self-driving technology company Waymo, this past summer.

However, it is also possible that Kim was hired for his experience with user interface design that he acquired with Microsoft, or that he is simply being recruited for something related to self-driving technology and not an actual Apple car itself. Nonetheless, his hiring shows that Apple is busy and not afraid to dip its toes into the automotive industry when seeking out new talent.