Elon Musk certainly doesn't mince his words, especially when it comes to addressing the rumours that Apple has been poaching some of his best engineers at Tesla.
"Important engineers? They have hired people we’ve fired. 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.”
Musk was speaking to German newspaper Handelsblatt about the VW emissions crisis, the future of Tesla and it would appear Apple.
When asked if he considered Apple to be a serious competitor in the automotive industry he reportedly laughed and said: "Did you ever take a look at the Apple Watch?"
Despite his seemingly negative views on the company he admits that ultimately, a car was the natural next step for them.
"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.”
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Although he points out that the next steps will be difficult for the technology giant saying: “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.’"
Tesla recently unveiled its first SUV in the form of the Model X. With pivoting falcon wing doors and an impressive 0-60mph time of 3.2secs.