One of Steve Jobs' former executives is now leading the Apple Car project

Apple has tapped a long-time employee and former member of Steve Jobs' executive team to lead its top-secret car project.

According to Daisuke Wakabayashi of the Wall Street Journal, Bob Mansfield is now in charge of Apple's so-called "Project Titan" car project. Mansfield used to be the head of hardware development at Apple and worked on Macs and the iPad.

The former head of Project Titan, Steve Zadesky, left Apple in January of this year.

Mansfield originally planned to retire from Apple in 2012, but the company announced he'd stay on a few months later. In 2013, he was moved to a role in Apple's "special projects" team and removed from the company's executive leadership team. The special projects team developed the Apple Watch.

Since then, Mansfield has been relatively hidden from the public view, while other Apple execs took the spotlight at company events. (Mansfield used to always appear in those promotional videos for new products.)

Very little is known about Apple's car project beyond the fact that the company is shooting to start selling it by 2021.