Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk has voiced his frustrations with Apple and its Car project, known as Project Titan, calling the Cupertino-based company a “Tesla Graveyard” for its practice of hiring fired Tesla employees.
Speaking to German newspaper Handelsblatt, Musk’s insult came from a general concern about Apple’s car project. “We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard’,” said Musk. “If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple… I’m not kidding”.
Musk’s sick burns are well-intentioned, though: building a car is very different from putting together a Watch or iPhone.
“Did you ever take a look at the Apple Watch? (laughs) No, seriously: it’s good that Apple is moving and investing in this direction,” states Musk to Handelsblatt. “But cars are very complex compared to phones or smartwatches. You can’t just go to a supplier like Foxconn and say ‘build me a car’. But for Apple, the car is the next logical thing to finally offer a significant innovation. A new pencil or a bigger iPad alone were not relevant enough.”
Musk’s point isn’t that Apple doesn’t have the skill to turn its hand to car manufacturing, it’s just that it doesn’t currently build anything itself. But if Musk can do it, why can’t Apple?
Apple’s car project is estimated to arrive in 2019, so there’s still plenty of time for it to smooth out any issues and poach more of Tesla’s fired employees.
Apple is used to having insults hurled its way from other prominent tech figures. Let’s hope Tim Cook can smack down Elon Musk like Steve Jobs did to Michael Dell on stage.
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