Elon Musk thinks Apple Car will come too late

By

Musk
Musk is confident Telsa will beat the Apple Car.
Photo: Recode/Facebook

Apple should have started development on the Apple Car a lot earlier than it did, according to Space X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The real-life comic-book superhero sat down for an interview at Code Conference and said that when it comes to autonomous cars, Google won’t be a competitor because they’re not a car company, however Apple will be.

Musk thinks it may be too late for Apple to be truly competitive though.

“I’d think there will be volume production no sooner than 2020. Is that too late?” Musk said regarding Apple’s rumored car project. “The sheer scale of automotive manufacturing is hard to imagine until you see the plants. The size of the industrial infrastructure is astonishing.”

iPhones might be a lot smaller than Teslas, but if any company knows how to orchestrate the production high-tech devices at an unfathomable scale, it’s Apple. Musk plans to have 1 million cars rolling off the Tesla assembly lines by 2020, so Apple will have to ramp up fast.

Apple’s project titan has been described as a “Tesla graveyard” by Musk in the past. The not-so-secret car project has amassed hundreds of engineers and designers, many from car companies like Telsa, Ford, Mercedes, BMW, and others.

Musk’s interview in the red chairs covered a range of topics much more interesting than his impending car battle with Apple. The tech visionary talked about Space X’s plans to launch the Falcon Heavy rocket by the end of the year as well as whether or not we’re all just living in a simulation.

Watch the full interview below:

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.