No, they're going to release three variants: 8, 64 and 128 hp. lol
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Electric Motorcycle Startup Mission Motors Ceases Operations After Losing Talent to Apple
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No, they're going to release three variants: 8, 64 and 128 hp. lol
That's a risk with any start-up. Pay sucks and you're living on the idea that a few years of hard work will turn a great product and you'll get your reward... but when that does not happen, and you don't have faith in management (which is often the case), taking offers from other companies become very attractive.
Apple is trying to build a business and as a stock holder, I would expect them to hire the best talent out there if they want to build an electric vehicle. They'll need it.
It will be interesting to see how Apple and others such as Google enter these markets... it's very different than what they are familiar with and many challenges await them.
BTW.... the new Apple Campus is round because an indoor test track is built in.
That completely depends on the school you're going to and whether you're in state or out of state. If you are out of state your could easily spend 6 figures on any degree. There are lots of ranked schools that aren't going to break the bank. I go to CU Boulder, our aerospace engineering program is 6th ranked among public universities. In state tuition for college of engineering is $14k a year, the business school is actually more at just under $16k a year.
Of course it has something to do with the article. But the way you formulate the post does not indicate that you are actually here to discuss why. So, thanks for your input, but no thanks.
Maybe they took Steve Jobs too literally?
"Computers are like a bicycle for our minds"
:-D
"Computers are like a bicycle for our minds"
:-D
More like this company probably paid their employees next to nothing. If you want to keep your talent you have to PAY them.
Not to mention founded in 2007 and after 8 years was still unable to release a product. Yeah, not exactly any business model I'd be investing in.
You do not have to backwards peddle on humor.
Now you're just putting the boot in!
Seem to remember Apple failing big at one time; I guess that wasn't anything to do with them?
Of course that is true, but you must understand that just because you found a way to do it, doesn't mean the same plan is scale-able to every engineer in the country. Indeed, even your situation as I understand it could still result in huge loans.
$14k/yr is still far from inexpensive. Obviously I don't need to tell you to do the math, but a back of the napkin calculation shows that 4 years of school at your rate, and 48 months of rent and food, adds up to over $100,000. (I assumed $1000/month for rent and food, looks like average rent in Boulder is about $900/bedroom, with the rest going to food or a meal plan, which I think is a pretty conservative estimate). That is before the cost of textbooks, transportation, some fun activities, etc. are factored in. Good-paying jobs for students are hard to come by these days. $12/hr won't really make a dent in that cost anyway.
Most of these engineers at issue here probably had MSs or PhDs as well - which is a lot more schooling. Even if they were one of the fortunate ones that were able to get an MS or PhD cost-free and cover all their living expenses with stipends, that is still ~4-6 more years of their undergraduate loans compounding interest without payment. That $100,000 in loans can easily get to $120,000 or more in that amount of time, and then be as high as $200,000 total paid back when all is said and done. Again, that is with the assumption they don't take on any further loans during their MS or PhD programs, which is also rare (many MSs or PhDs still have to borrow a bit to cover cost-of-living expenses).
Now imagine the entire "class" of engineers in school this generation. Some have parents helping them pay, some have scholarships and loans, etc. Some were able to get into an in-state school, some did not get into an in-state school. Some might get the same education with less loans, but the majority will end up borrowing way more than my calculation above.
According to Wikipedia, this happened last year, mostly...
And as far as it being a 'dick move' by Apple, and those engineers, it's a sellers market, sometimes, trying to find work in that industry.
If it didn't look like they had a future, or their management was the ones being the dick, the engineers were right in leaving.
Don't forget that Apple and many other corporations out there were sued for coming up with the 'anti-poaching' agreement that stopped this from happening, and likely also capped salaries because of the artificially lowered salary and job demand...
Mission Motors was founded by Mason Cabot, Forrest North and Edward West in 2007. The company was briefly known as Hum Cycles while it operated in stealth mode.
In February 2009, the company revealed the prototype for their first vehicle, the Mission One PLE (Premiere Limited Edition) at the TED conference. The all-electric motorcycle, styled by Yves Béhar, claimed a top speed of 150 miles per hour and a range 150 miles per charge. The company accepted reservations for the first 50 vehicles, originally scheduled to be delivered in 2010. Reservations required a $5,000 deposit, with a sales price of $68,995. Delivery of the Mission One PLE was delayed until Q2 2011 and eventually discontinued.
In February 2010, Forrest North, founder and CEO, stepped down.
In June 2010, Mission Motors secured $3.35MM in additional funding.
In November 2010, the company launched MissionEVT (Electric Vehicle Technology). The stated goal was to design and supply high-performance EV powertrains, including energy storage systems, drive systems and software, to the vehicle manufacturers, targeting a wide range of applications—including battery-electric, plug-in hybrid electric and hybrid-electric vehicles.
In December 2010, the company unveiled the Mission R electric motorcycle. The powertrain is of Mission’s own design and features a 100 kW liquid-cooled 3-phase AC-Induction motor and 14kwh of batteries. The chassis was designed by James Parker and the bodywork was designed by Tim Prentice.
In August 2011 Mission Motors closed a $9 million Series B round led by investment bank Warburg Pincus.
The battery-powered unit of Project LiveWire, Harley-Davidson's first electric motorcycle was developed with help from the company. The prototype is powered by a longitudinally-mounted electric motor rated at 74 hp and 52 lb-ft of torque, on par with H-D’s 833 cc internal combustion engine.
The last FaceBook post was on June 4th 2014, the company's website was last seen on Feb 20th 2015 and the phone is now disconnected.
In February 2009, the company revealed the prototype for their first vehicle, the Mission One PLE (Premiere Limited Edition) at the TED conference. The all-electric motorcycle, styled by Yves Béhar, claimed a top speed of 150 miles per hour and a range 150 miles per charge. The company accepted reservations for the first 50 vehicles, originally scheduled to be delivered in 2010. Reservations required a $5,000 deposit, with a sales price of $68,995. Delivery of the Mission One PLE was delayed until Q2 2011 and eventually discontinued.
In February 2010, Forrest North, founder and CEO, stepped down.
In June 2010, Mission Motors secured $3.35MM in additional funding.
In November 2010, the company launched MissionEVT (Electric Vehicle Technology). The stated goal was to design and supply high-performance EV powertrains, including energy storage systems, drive systems and software, to the vehicle manufacturers, targeting a wide range of applications—including battery-electric, plug-in hybrid electric and hybrid-electric vehicles.
In December 2010, the company unveiled the Mission R electric motorcycle. The powertrain is of Mission’s own design and features a 100 kW liquid-cooled 3-phase AC-Induction motor and 14kwh of batteries. The chassis was designed by James Parker and the bodywork was designed by Tim Prentice.
In August 2011 Mission Motors closed a $9 million Series B round led by investment bank Warburg Pincus.
The battery-powered unit of Project LiveWire, Harley-Davidson's first electric motorcycle was developed with help from the company. The prototype is powered by a longitudinally-mounted electric motor rated at 74 hp and 52 lb-ft of torque, on par with H-D’s 833 cc internal combustion engine.
The last FaceBook post was on June 4th 2014, the company's website was last seen on Feb 20th 2015 and the phone is now disconnected.
September 12, 2015 Mission Motors files for chapter 7 bankruptcy.
And as far as it being a 'dick move' by Apple, and those engineers, it's a sellers market, sometimes, trying to find work in that industry.
If it didn't look like they had a future, or their management was the ones being the dick, the engineers were right in leaving.
Don't forget that Apple and many other corporations out there were sued for coming up with the 'anti-poaching' agreement that stopped this from happening, and likely also capped salaries because of the artificially lowered salary and job demand...
I would agree. The first thing i thought was that the company didn't fail because talent left . . . . the talent left because the company showed no promise.
People don't stick around when the ship is sinking or if it's taking on water and none of the higher ups are bailing water.
It doesn't sound like they had a vision problem, but an execution problem. Making prototypes is easy. They are basically 'one-offs'. Making an actual production product is harder to pull off. A task they seemed not at all prepared for, and the 'engineers' left, because the engineers probably had a feeling that it wasn't worth their time to stay around...
It's sad, but that's business...
Although VC companies aren't in the habit of giving 12+ million dollars to a company about to leave a crater in the business world.
What did Apple do in the A123 case that was wrong? I looked up the case and it appears that the employees violated a non-compete agreement. But (1) that's an agreement between the employees and A123, not Apple. (2) There is a general premise in the USA that non-compete agreements are unenforceable in the USA, and even if you don't believe that, they are definitely illegal in California. (3) Out-of-state non-compete agreements are not binding in California.
IMHO Apple has done a few really unethical and illegal things like the repeated backdating options scandal and the anti-poaching agreements. But I don't see hiring talented employees for their talents as being wrong. A123 was raft with problems--I'd want to leave too.