Outspoken Tesla chief executive Elon Musk employees refer to the tech company (apple) as the “Tesla graveyard”.
Dismissing claims that Apple is poaching key members of staff from his own firm to work onits long-rumoured self-driving car project, Musk said: “Important engineers? They have hired people we’ve fired. We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard’.
Musk, whose company will this week unveiled theModel X, its first SUV, was speaking to German newspaper Handelsblatt. When asked whether or not he took Apple seriously as a competitor in the automotive market, Musk replied, laughing: “Did you ever take a look at the Apple Watch?”
He added: “No, seriously: it’s good that Apple is moving and investing in this direction. 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.”
Apple’s project to create its own self-driving car is fast becoming one of the worst-kept secrets in Silicon Valley. In September, the company met with California officials to review the state’s autonomous vehicle regulations.
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