Elon Musk calls Apple the 'Tesla Graveyard,' pooh-poohs rumored Apple Car

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Comments

  • Reply 141 of 276

    At best, Tesla is currently a minor player in the car industry. They don't manufacture in volume, have difficulty getting their designs to market, and only sell to high-end buyers. It's unlikely that Apple is even thinking of Tesla as their target competitor.

  • Reply 142 of 276
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    What 'competitors'? In what way does the Watch or the iPad compete with Tesla?!

    Musk is basically saying you think the people that brought you the flop that is ?Watch will be able to successfully build and sell an electric vehicle? I think there's a part of him deep down saying "yes". His comments are like someone self conscious about their looks making fun of someone else's looks.
  • Reply 143 of 276
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    In any event, my question to the OP was not about Apple, it was about Tesla. Neither you nor the OP has named a major automobile innovation from Tesla. It was a serious question, worthy of a serious answer. Not a diversionary one.

    I genuinely do not believe my answer to be diversionary - the parallels between the two companies and the nature of their respective innovation are numerous.

    But, since you insist. Tesla’s use of “industry standard” lithium cells is, in and of itself, innovative. The way that they are packaged, in a removable armoured floor of the car (battery can be swapped in <90 seconds), is innovative. The body of the sedan, with one of the lowest drag coefficients of any car, ever, is innovative.
  • Reply 144 of 276
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by baconstang View Post

     

    Hey hey.  Now I wanna hear Tim talking smack about Elon. 

    A lot of us thought an Apple / Tesla partnership might be interesting.  Maybe.

     

    Perhaps Apple could obtain some of the auto expertise they seek by picking up Porsche.  They might be available rather soon for a mere $20B or so when VW has to pay all the fines and settlements.




    Musk knows that Apple won't respond, because they generally don't ever discuss future products.  He can say whatever he wants and not worry about being called out by Apple.  Would be cool though for a few of those ex-Tesla employees to publicly call BS on Musk.  I can tell you that if I were a Tesla employee and I personally knew and respected some of those individuals who had gone over to Apple and my CEO was making very disparaging comments about former fellow employees, my level of respect for Musk would most definitely be affected in a negative way.  Elon Musk made himself look small, IMHO.  Time will tell if this was a mistake on his part.

  • Reply 145 of 276
    Apple can do what Scamscum did to Apple... wait until Tesla does all the hard work, refines and perfects the electric car, then copy it and enter the market.
  • Reply 146 of 276
    satchmosatchmo Posts: 2,699member
    Perhaps Musk is tired of the comparison between himself and Jobs. There was an interview a few years back where Musk said Jobs was rather rude to him after being introduced to him at a party by none other than Larry Page.

    But I suspect all of this is really about shareholder confidence as well as company morale. He certainly doesn't want any of is his top engineers to consider joining Apple.
  • Reply 147 of 276
    I really like Elon. This article is crap. He is is a jokester at time and also very candid. Just because he says it doesn't make it true. His company is obviously concerned about Apple. If they are not then my respect has just went right out the window. I also thing Apple can be good for Tesla in the fact that there are a lot of puzzles to solve in advancing the automobile industry. Money alone will not get this done. But companies with the right leadership, culture and finances combined could be the ticket to realizing a better future. The industry needs multiple innovators and there is plenty of room for Tesla, Apple and others to play.
  • Reply 148 of 276
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by vvswarup View Post

     

    Steve Jobs was twice the salesman that Elon Musk is and then some. Steve routinely criticized Apple's competitors. One should expect a CEO to criticize competitors'

     

    I get what Musk is trying to do. He's trying to exude self-confidence. He's trying to show that Apple doesn't scare him. He wants to show that the rumors about Apple poaching Tesla engineers and Apple planning a move into the car business doesn't scare him in the slightest. IMO, the most effective way for him to show that Apple doesn't scare would have been to say nothing at all. 

     

    As much as Steve was a salesman, one thing he never did was to criticize would-be competitors, i.e. talk smack about rumored products, at least as far as I can remember. He criticized products that his competitors were either already selling or had announced to be sold. I don't think Steve ever criticized companies rumored to be competing against him.




    I like Musk but of course its fairly easy to see he is spoofing here. Does he really fire that many people, and do they all then go to Apple? If so how come Apple never noticed at the interview stage, or the during the HR checks that their new employee was out of work for a month or two? 

     

    Of course these people were hired from Tesla, probably head hunted, while still at Tesla. The only thing I can believe is that Tesla might have fired people from even talking to Apple, if they knew about it.

  • Reply 149 of 276
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

     

     

    Anyone can dream big dreams.  But they need to be reality.

     

    Google is trying to find the secret to immortality.

    Musk is trying to colonize Mars.

    Who give a crap.

     

    Wake me up when these things come true and not just a SciFi movie.  


     

    Are you not entertained? I love watching how these organizations spend money. I'm totally behind Musk building a volcano lair.

  • Reply 150 of 276
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by snailer View Post



    Apple can do what Scamscum did to Apple... wait until Tesla does all the hard work, refines and perfects the electric car, then copy it and enter the market.

     

    Like they did with smartphones and music players? All the good companies do this. Google wasn't the first search engine or online advertiser either.

  • Reply 151 of 276
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    sigma4life wrote: »
    Jobs was a salesman, Musk is a genius engineer. Jobs was great with his vision and speaking abilities. Musk has the same vision but actually creates the product instead of pushing others to do it.

    first -- Jobs was the most successful product manager ever. that's a real profession in product development and its not part of sales. look it up.

    second -- I just read Musk's wiki and can't find where he's personally building cars. in fact I can't find where he personally engineered anything. his career started as a web guy with his brother and funded by his father.
  • Reply 152 of 276
    sog35 wrote: »
    Anyone can dream big dreams.  But they need to be reality.

    Google is trying to find the secret to immortality.
    Musk is trying to colonize Mars.
    Who give a crap.

    Wake me up when these things come true and not just a SciFi movie.  

    He's launched rockets so I'd say the future is now. If you're waiting on the day when our lives are like the Jetsons', then you're going to be waiting a while before you consider private space travel a success. I think that's too high a standard, but to each his own.
  • Reply 153 of 276
    mr. h wrote: »

    I genuinely do not believe my answer to be diversionary - the parallels between the two companies and the nature of their respective innovation are numerous.

    But, since you insist. Tesla’s use of “industry standard” lithium cells is, in and of itself, innovative. The way that they are packaged, in a removable armoured floor of the car (battery can be swapped in <90 seconds), is innovative. The body of the sedan, with one of the lowest drag coefficients of any car, ever, is innovative.

    Ok. I'll look that up. I agree that the placement is innovative, but I thought they were just using off the shelf batteries? Btw, have they actually started battery swapping in "90 seconds" in real world settings yet? And, wasn't there an issue associated with fire danger from its placement?

    Also, it's interesting that the original poster (@wakefinance?) thought that the only major innovations from Musk were on the SpaceX front, not automobiles.
  • Reply 154 of 276
    nolamacguy wrote: »
    first -- Jobs was the most successful product manager ever. that's a real profession in product development and its not part of sales. look it up.

    second -- I just read Musk's wiki and can't find where he's personally building cars. in fact I can't find where he personally engineered anything. his career started as a web guy with his brother and funded by his father.

    Right, because wiki's are THE official source of information. If you knew anything about Musk and ever watched his interviews or read the numerous articles about him you'd know he's VERY involved on the technical side of the companies he creates.

    Musk ONLY co-created Paypal, is ONLY the chairman of SolarCity, ONLY created SpaceX that builds rockets better than NASA at a tenth of the cost, and ONLY started the first successful new car company in the last 100 years in the US. The Model S is ONLY the best product ever made in any category, according to Consumer Reports.
  • Reply 155 of 276
    basjhjbasjhj Posts: 97member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by baconstang View Post

     

    Hey hey.  Now I wanna hear Tim talking smack about Elon. 

    A lot of us thought an Apple / Tesla partnership might be interesting.  Maybe.

     

    Perhaps Apple could obtain some of the auto expertise they seek by picking up Porsche.  They might be available rather soon for a mere $20B or so when VW has to pay all the fines and settlements.




    Porsche is not for sale, and will never be, I think. Point is, the Porsche family has a large stake in VW, and I'm pretty sure they would want to have the king's ransom; $20B is almost certainly not going to cut it, especially if Apple knocks on the door. If VW intends to sell anything, I think SEAT and/or Skoda would go first. Also, VW is 20% state-owned, and the unions are VERY powerful there, so before they start selling any division, German taxpayers are going to have to step in...

  • Reply 156 of 276
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,905member

    Thought of The Day - Only those who are scared of their competitors compel to thrash them !!!! Dog barks loud at elephant but the mighty elephant never pay attention to a Dog. That is the difference between two !!!

     

    Musk has all the best qualities that few upper band intelligent human can possess. But, he needs to stay away from the rubbish talk. He will always get pulled into such discussion because that is what media do and their livelihood but he is smart enough to stay away into unnecessary word fight and focus his energy on improving battery range for Tesla cars. That is his gift to human race helping save environment that is at almost point of no return.

  • Reply 157 of 276
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Heh, Tesla stock is down 3% pre market because Barclays downgraded them over concerns about the Model X.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-downgraded-barclays-model-x-114607041.html
  • Reply 158 of 276
    basjhjbasjhj Posts: 97member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleSauce007 View Post

     



    I think Tesla is a disaster in the making.  The company is run by engineers running around like chickens without heads.

     

    Apple should partner with BMW or even buy them.

    BMW is well managed with adult supervision, they knows how to make cars and they already have dealers and service centers all over the world.

    BMW is much more like Apple than Tesla will ever be.  I think Steve Jobs would choose BMW.


    While I agree with you that BMW is a well-managed company and such: BMW is not for sale. You would have to buy out the Quandt family. Good luck with that.

  • Reply 159 of 276
    sog35 wrote: »
    So launching rockets is an acheivement now?  Give me a break.  We have been launching rockets since the 1950's

    Which non-government rockets have been launched since the 50s?
  • Reply 160 of 276
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by wigby View Post

     
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by matrix07 View Post

     

    If Apple can do that. They have no track record when it comes to car. (I know they didn't for phone either but this is the whole 'nother level.)




    Why does everyone say that cars are on another level? They are not. If anything, the tech industry is another whole level. Cars get the same crappy mileage and all look the same for years. Doesn't seem like a particularly demanding bunch of consumers to me. The tech industry demands doubling of horsepower and a brand new design every other year. That takes constant innovation.


    Forgive me if this has already been mentioned in the thread.

     

    The tech industry is amazing no doubt, but cars are definitely a whole other level versus consumer electronics. They use a lot of the tech that found inside inside consumer electronics in addition to engineering a ton of moving parts.

     

    With every year that passes vehicles consistently get better mileage with more power and fewer emissions (unless you drive a VW diesel), better ride, better handling, better crash protection, more tech features, etc. The list is nearly endless with how much better vehicles get every year.

     

    They are more reliable than they have ever been, easily run 10,000 miles between oil changes, and will easily run for a quarter million miles with nominal maintenance.

     

    Also there is a reason many vehicles look similar these days and that is because of air friction. Much like how most planes or high speed trains look similar. Wind tunnel testing shows that to achieve an efficient drag coefficient design means the body of the vehicle can only venture so far from one another. As far as vehicles like trucks and commercial vehicles go, there are certain levels of capacity and utility that needs to be maintained, so they too will all look similar.

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