Elon Musk has hit out at Apple’s rumored electric car project, saying that it’s filling its ranks with second rank people — who Tesla has already tried out and then gotten rid of.
“They have hired people we’ve fired,” Musk told German newspaper Handelsblatt. “We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard.’ If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I’m not kidding.”
So Musk doesn’t think Apple has it in them to build a great electric car? “Did you ever take a look at the Apple Watch?” he said, throwing shade on Apple’s latest new product (and not for the first time, might we add!)
“No, seriously,” he continued, “it’s good that Apple is moving and investing in this direction. But cars are very complex compared to phones or smartwatches.”
As visionary high-tech companies with (in Apple’s case, rumored) designs on revolutionizing the car industry, Tesla and Apple have a complex relationship.
Jamie Carlson, a senior engineer from Tesla, joined Apple’s Project Titan this August. According to Bloomberg. Tesla has also done its share of poaching from Apple — snapping up more ex-Apple employees than any other company at around 150. Musk is also said to relish comparisons between himself and Apple’s late co-founder, Steve Jobs.
In 2014 there were even acquisition rumors suggesting that Apple may snap up Tesla (which financially it’s certainly capable of). While those didn’t come to anything, Elon Musk did say at the time that he thought an Apple Car would be “a great idea.”
You’ve changed Elon!
Source: Handelsblatt
Via: Business Insider