'Scores' of Employees Have Left Tesla for Apple Over the Last Year

[BiscottiGelato]

I think Elon would be fine with this arrangement. He's an engineer first - his other hats are just what he does out of necessity. He has mentioned on several occasions that he'd be okay with someone else being CEO. I imagine he'd want more of a co-CEO, or some kind of role where Elon has final say, but ordinarily the CEO simply takes care of everything so Elon doesn't have to think about it.

Ideally, he wants an equivalent to what he has with Shotwell at SpaceX. She's SpaceX's head when Musk is focusing on Tesla, and she handles the short term business choices of keeping paying customers happy with the existing Falcon 9 launches, while Musk is free to focus on longer term choices of developing larger rockets for colonizing Mars.

I think Musk would love to similarly hand Model 3 off to someone else and leave him free to focus more on designing future vehicles - the Semi, the pickup, and the second generation Roadster.

Doug Field was the guy. But Model 3 production pretty much took off right after he left and Elon starts to micro-manage the factory... Doug Field probably told him it's impossible, like plenty of smart people have told Elon. Makes me recall seeing Jim Cantrell, part of founding team of SpaceX's Quora response:

"He and I had very similar upbringings, very similar interests and very similar early histories. He was a bit of a loner and so was I. He decided to start a software company at age 13. I decided to design and build my own stereo amplifier system at age 13. Both of us succeeded at it. We both had engineers for fathers and were extremely driven kids. What separated us, I believe, was his lack of even being able to conceive failure. I know this because this is where we parted ways at SpaceX. We got to a point where I could not see it succeeding and walked away. He didn't and succeeded. I have 25 years experience building space hardware and he had none at the time. So much for experience."

https://www.quora.com/How-did-Elon-Musk-learn-enough-about-rockets-to-create-and-run-SpaceX

Elon always does the impossible to prove them wrong.

 

[SteveW928]

Think Profits™ ?

or Think Pie-charts™

 

[kriebe]

"We wish them well. Tesla is the hard path. We have 100 times less money than Apple, so of course they can afford to pay more."

How can you have 100 times less of anything that has no defined limit? I understand having 1/100 of something or 1%.

 

[usarioclave]

Doug Field was the guy. But Model 3 production pretty much took off right after he left and Elon starts to micro-manage the factory.

In general you can't fix manufacturing issues quickly. The model 3 production became better so quickly that it the fixes for it must have been in place before Field left.

 

[Soccertess]

Speaks volumes when Tesla and Apple fight for employees. Can be said for the same thing as Bmw or Ford

 

[xDKP]

I used Maps for a 4000km road trip in France and Spain. They have been flawless.

Siri, like all other digital assistants, is in its infancy.

I’ve used Apple Maps for several long trips in Europe as well. Always amazing - only thing google does better for me now, is that they always know all the company names I’m about to visit. So I don’t need to put in the address of the customer I’m visiting but just the name. Apple doesn’t always know yet.

Love AM way better for design and fluidly UI though

 

[b-dogg]

This whole story is another example of FUD spread by big oil and other oil industry shills and Tesla shorts trying to sink a company making a great product and trying to disrupt an industry. It’s shocking the daily attacks and negative spin put on Tesla.

Reality, Tesla’s model 3 is to autos what iPhone was to Nokia’s empire. They have solar roof and power walls to disrupt power company’s strangle hold on utilities and enable free and clean charging of your car.

As a shareholder I would only support Apple getting involved to help take them private and get rid of the stock manipulation and the attacks from big oil. Apple in terms of innovation hasn’t hit more than its missed since Steve left this mortal coil. I don’t want watch straps and thinner keyboard that don’t work - $1tn market cap be damned.

Elon is more like Jobs was than Cook will ever be. Tesla have a mission beyond profit.

 

[CarlJ]

"Apple should just acquire..." is a phrase that should be retired imo.

Agreed. Best one I remember hearing, by the way, is that Apple could buy the entire NFL. Every team. There'd be no earthly reason for this, but it'd be quite an entertaining spectacle. The only quasi-reasonable sounding one I ever heard, was that they could buy Netflix (I think it was Netflix, maybe I'm misremembering), which would get them a huge leg up on show production. But the uses of this phrase construct where the "should" is uttered enthusiastically and unjokingly are nearly always deeply flawed.
[doublepost=1535095745][/doublepost]

Love AM way better for design and fluidly UI though

Apple really nailed it on the UI while driving - the most useful bits can be parsed in a split-second glance. It's a case where they went for giving the most useful information quickly, rather than maximizing pretty.

 

[Pupi]

Haha, no wonder. That Musk guy is a total looney toon. Meanwhile, Timothy Cook is guiding the spaceship to the promised land

 

[Ghost31]

I’ve used Apple Maps for several long trips in Europe as well. Always amazing - only thing google does better for me now, is that they always know all the company names I’m about to visit. So I don’t need to put in the address of the customer I’m visiting but just the name. Apple doesn’t always know yet.

Love AM way better for design and fluidly UI though

I’ll be one of the few that totally agree with you on this. I’ve used Apple maps for the past couple years and it hasn’t done me wrong. In my area, Apple maps and google maps are pretty much equal on routing. And now that I bought a car that has CarPlay, I use it about a billion times more. Love it

 

[Piggie]

But Apple would have really thin rockets if they took over, but of course they'd be sealed and not reusable

 

[szw-mapple fan]

And yet Apple Maps and Siri are almost unusable. Ironically both of them are integral to autonomous driving. And they almost a decade old.

Sorry I’m not inspired with confidence with this story.

6 Years is hardly a decade. Apple maps has been great for me for the last couple of years, and I much prefer the maps interface. As for Siri, Apple seems to be heading into the right direction with the shortcuts app.

 

[Solomani]

'Scores' of Employees Have Left Tesla for Apple Over the Last Year

That's a very big Graveyard, right Elon?
[doublepost=1535103374][/doublepost]

Elon is more like Jobs was than Cook will ever be. Tesla have a mission beyond profit.

Elon is a basketcase. The only thing Elon has in common with Steve Jobs is that Elon will soon be deposed by his Board of Directors, ousted from the company he founded.

Other than that, Elon is nowhere as successful as either Cook or Jobs.

 

[44267547]

Don’t know if anyone remembers this, however; What’s interesting, Elon musk actually made a quote a few years back saying “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 it makes me think that he would respond in the same way if he read this article.

 

[threesixty360]

I also think if Apple is serious about making cars it kind of has to buy Tesla.

Apple can’t build a factory etc.. and make cars themselves without doing all the things Tesla have already done. Otherwise Apple would have to get another company to make the car for them. And those companies (bmw, VW etc.. ) probably won’t want that.

So they either get into partnership with Tesla (most likely) and use them like they do Foxconn and invest so they can build better plants and production facilities.

Either under the Tesla brand or a joint brand. Either way Tesla has a money problem. Apple will have have a production problem. Both are American companies with staff that are known to each other.

It’s only a matter of time right?

 

[jonnysods]

Everyone has already said this but I think it has more to do with climate of Tesla rather than Apple car R&D.

I Teslas mojo but I'm skeptical about the company's future.

 

[cwt2nospam]

Jokes aside, Tesla fired a huge number of workers from the assembly line earlier this year.

No, they didn't. It was mostly middle management, and not assembly line workers.

Now, a few upper management/design folks leave for a better company, it is a conspiracy by Apple!

Didn't these type of workers sue to move between companies, ending the conspiracy between the big 6-12 companies to not "poach" each others kitty?

Yes, and Tesla hires Apple employees too. This is just CNBC trying to spin a negative story about Tesla right as they're about to become profitable. In a few years as ICE makers start to go bankrupt (the transition to EVs rightly scares them) it will be interesting to reread these stories.
[doublepost=1535110830][/doublepost]

I think you're making the assumption that self-driving is some kind of advantage or new forward-thinking feature. For those of us who like to drive, it's a sci-fi nightmare. For the rest, it is just sci-fi.

I see very few of you on the road. Most people are blocking the passing lane because they don't want to drive. They just want to get in line to follow the car in front of them. Why? Because that requires less thought/effort than actually driving the car.

Self driving will take a few months for people to get used to when it is out, and then it will be the norm. Not because car makers will sell it, but because people want it much more than they realize now.

 

[dilbert99]

I used Maps for a 4000km road trip in France and Spain. They have been flawless.

Siri, like all other digital assistants, is in its infancy.

Nah, Siri is like a kid that has been held back repeating the class a few years rather than advancing with all the other kids
[doublepost=1535111384][/doublepost]

Ive is an acclaimed designer, Musk not. Cook is a supply chain genius, Musk not. If Apple ever acquires Tesla, they would fire Elon next day.

If Apple acquired Tesla, I wouldn't want to buy one because Apple would remove two of the wheels and call it courage, then they would put slimmer wheels on it. We call it simple beautiful, its gorgeous, its the slimmest car we have ever done, its 1.2m thinner than previous, I give you the push bike.

 

[KPandian1]

No, they didn't. It was mostly middle management, and not assembly line workers.

Yes, you are are correct. I stand corrected.

 

[nt5672]

You’re assuming that Musk wants to stay. He might be very happy for Apple to acquire Tesla, exit on a high note, and put all of his attention into his true love, SpaceX.

And the opportunity to fleece another set of investors.

I don't like Cook at all as CEO, but financially he seems pretty solid and I don't see him being partial to Musk's financial game playing and shipping products with known problems bad parts.

 

[blacktape242]

here comes all the elon musk hate...personally i love the guy, he has done some amazing things.
i drive it almost everyday.

 

[nauf8]

I am certain many would disagree, and for good reasons, but I think if Apple would acquire Tesla, which probably would require about $70B worth of cash and/or stock swap, many problems would be solved.

Tesla and Elon would no longer need to seek funding and talk to investors directly. And gain access to Tim Cook's supply chain and manufacturing leverage power and experience.

For Apple, Apple will be able to fold its Project Titan and CarPlay projects into Tesla and immediately gain access to charging stations and battery technologies.

Of course, the merger assumes Elon would be content running only the product and engineering side of businesses. Steve Jobs apparently did, but I am not sure Elon would be "fine" being under Tim Cook's leadership.

You can’t have a visionary work under an employee. Musk is a visionary, wrong or right, as Jobs was. He has a volatile mood? Wasn’t Jobs sort of the same? I ain’t comparing them but they are basically cut with the same mold.
Guys like him, Jobs, Gates and others won’t fit on an organization where an employee is the boss in turn.

 

[5105973]

Not everyone has a trust fund or can forever stay 22, eating pizza and drinking beer while slouched on a cheeto dusted couch. People grow up, have families and responsibilities. The Bay Area is expensive and people got rents to pay.

Homer Simpson has come close.
[doublepost=1535138297][/doublepost]

And the opportunity to fleece another set of investors.

I don't like Cook at all as CEO, but financially he seems pretty solid and I don't see him being partial to Musk's financial game playing and shipping products with known problems bad parts.

Uh, have we been reading the same MacRumors news the past few years?

 

[Solomani]

Don’t know if anyone remembers this, however; What’s interesting, Elon musk actually made a quote a few years back saying “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 it makes me think that he would respond in the same way if he read this article.

A graveyard is a place of emptiness, sadness and death. It's a place you'd rather not be. It's not a place that people are eager to "flock to". Hence, Tesla is the graveyard in this current context.
[doublepost=1535139203][/doublepost]

I also think if Apple is serious about making cars it kind of has to buy Tesla.

Apple can’t build a factory etc.. and make cars themselves without doing all the things Tesla have already done. Otherwise Apple would have to get another company to make the car for them. And those companies (bmw, VW etc.. ) probably won’t want that.

So they either get into partnership with Tesla (most likely) and use them like they do Foxconn and invest so they can build better plants and production facilities.

Either under the Tesla brand or a joint brand. Either way Tesla has a money problem. Apple will have have a production problem. Both are American companies with staff that are known to each other.

Unless the Saudi Crown Prince acquires Telsa first.

 

[shplock]

I am certain many would disagree, and for good reasons, but I think if Apple would acquire Tesla, which probably would require about $70B worth of cash and/or stock swap, many problems would be solved.

Tesla and Elon would no longer need to seek funding and talk to investors directly. And gain access to Tim Cook's supply chain and manufacturing leverage power and experience.

For Apple, Apple will be able to fold its Project Titan and CarPlay projects into Tesla and immediately gain access to charging stations and battery technologies.

Of course, the merger assumes Elon would be content running only the product and engineering side of businesses. Steve Jobs apparently did, but I am not sure Elon would be "fine" being under Tim Cook's leadership.

I respectfully disagree. I love Apple but I have to say for apple it is all about the money and only the money. Tim Cook is a nice guy I am sure but he is just a bean count win as much as he just cares about profits first and foremost.
Tesla is all about the mission and trying to change the world to more sustainable method of transport.
In about 2015 Adrian Perica was spotted going to Tesla several times and it was not to buy a car. He is the tea dof apple's acquisitions and mergers. I believe he was trying to buy Tesla when their value was about $5 billion.
The deal obviously did not go through and I think the major stumbling block was Elon. I believe that Tim wanted Elon to stay at Apple(Tesla)for a short while as an advisor type role then bow out and Elon did not want to do that. The ultimate fear for Tim was that he thought either by Elon's own hand or that of Apple employees he would be ousted and Elon replaces him as CEO.
I think that also Tim and a couple of other senior executives feared what Elon would do with all the war chest Apple has spent years hoarding. I mean it would be like giving your 8 year old child your credit card and send then loose into the toy shop.
We would get a load of cool innovation and progress if so, but that is another discussion for another day.
So i think therefore that Apple trying to make their own car is daft and full of too many questions and pitfalls.

Such as :
Apple like to be proprietary and would they let their car work with other tech such as level 3 chargers, or would they be willing to ceed a bit of control and be more open.

Apple like to make huge profits so there would not be a mass market affordable car like the Tesla Model 3. There is nothing wrong with selling a premium car at a premium price but that would not be a smart move by Apple if they want to seize significant market share.

How would Apple make the car? It is ok to get Foxconn to make iPhones and iPads etc but they can not do the same for the Apple car. There are firms that could do it but they would not be able to handle the sort of volumes needed by apple without huge investment which would take time to realise and convert into bigger factories etc.

Would Apple make the car on their own? That would require Tim actually spending a lot more than he has so far or is comfortable in doing so. That would take time to build the factory/acquire existing one and bring it up to speed etc.
Apple would need to source batteries from somewhere. If they source the from LG Chem or Samsung SDI etc then they have no capacity at moment as it all ha bene taken by car makers. I do not see Apple making their own batteries.

These are just some questions that I hope get resolved, I just don't see it though.

I think Tesla while smaller and less cash is more advanced with their culture and thinking as well as what they do.