Apple poached 'scores' of Tesla employees in recent months, but not all go to 'Project Tit...
Apple appears to have stepped up its poaching activities involving Tesla employees over the past few months, luring away manufacturing, security and software engineers, and supply chain experts to work on the "Project Titan" self-driving car initiative and other products, according to a new report.
Citing sources familiar with the hiring spree and LinkedIn data, CNBC reports Apple hired at least 46 people from Tesla in 2018. Some workers were poached, while others were laid off from the carmaker prior to joining the team at Cupertino.
Apple is ostensibly building out its Project Titan team with hires including former Tesla Autopilot, quality assurance, powertrain, mechanical design and firmware engineers, but the company is also adding manufacturing experts to its ranks.
According to a current Tesla employee who kept in touch with former colleagues, Apple appears to be placing renewed emphasis on manufacturing processes and equipment, the report said. The company outsources production to firms like Foxconn, but still offers input on new processes and techniques, as well as other areas of manufacture.
For example, Apple holds numerous patents relating to hardware manufacturing methods like "friction-stir welding," a welding process introduced with 2012's iMac revamp.
Other recent Tesla converts specialize in software, display, optics and battery technology, the report said, areas that apply to Apple's product lineup at large.
One Tesla engineer said former Tesla workers were attracted by better compensation, Apple leadership and the tech giant's products.
People familiar with the matter estimate technicians, software and manufacturing engineers get paid about one-and-a-half times more at Apple than they do at Tesla. Further, one former Tesla employee suggested Apple stock options are more attractive than they are at Tesla. The electric carmaker has yet to turn a profit, though CEO Elon Musk expects that to change sometime this year.
That lines up with a statement Tesla gave the publication about Apple's recent hires.
Given inherent overlap in areas of development, Apple and Tesla constantly vie for each other's engineers. Musk in 2015 said attrition rates swing in Tesla's favor by a ratio of five to one, hinting that those who left the company were bad actors. At the time, Apple was reportedly offering some Tesla employees $250,000 signing bonuses and 60 percent raises to jump ship. Whether those incentives are still in effect is unknown.
Musk, who once called Apple the "Tesla graveyard," is also the cause of recent instability in his company's stock. Rants on social media, public takedowns during earnings calls and an August tweet about taking Tesla private have all contributed to a 15 percent dip in share prices.
Today's report comes on the heels of news that former Mac hardware engineer Doug Field returned to Apple after a nearly five-year stint as Tesla's SVP of Engineering. Field is reportedly working on Project Titan under Bob Mansfield, who previously served as Apple's SVP of hardware engineering.
Citing sources familiar with the hiring spree and LinkedIn data, CNBC reports Apple hired at least 46 people from Tesla in 2018. Some workers were poached, while others were laid off from the carmaker prior to joining the team at Cupertino.
Apple is ostensibly building out its Project Titan team with hires including former Tesla Autopilot, quality assurance, powertrain, mechanical design and firmware engineers, but the company is also adding manufacturing experts to its ranks.
According to a current Tesla employee who kept in touch with former colleagues, Apple appears to be placing renewed emphasis on manufacturing processes and equipment, the report said. The company outsources production to firms like Foxconn, but still offers input on new processes and techniques, as well as other areas of manufacture.
For example, Apple holds numerous patents relating to hardware manufacturing methods like "friction-stir welding," a welding process introduced with 2012's iMac revamp.
Other recent Tesla converts specialize in software, display, optics and battery technology, the report said, areas that apply to Apple's product lineup at large.
One Tesla engineer said former Tesla workers were attracted by better compensation, Apple leadership and the tech giant's products.
People familiar with the matter estimate technicians, software and manufacturing engineers get paid about one-and-a-half times more at Apple than they do at Tesla. Further, one former Tesla employee suggested Apple stock options are more attractive than they are at Tesla. The electric carmaker has yet to turn a profit, though CEO Elon Musk expects that to change sometime this year.
That lines up with a statement Tesla gave the publication about Apple's recent hires.
Employees told the publication more employees were voluntarily leaving Tesla than in years past. The carmaker refutes assertions that people are departing for Apple at a higher than normal rate. Countering, Tesla told CNBC that voluntary attrition has decreased by one-third over the last twelve months, saying it also continues to hire employees from Apple and other companies. The story was different just three years ago.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. We are in extremely difficult battles against entrenched auto companies that make 100 times more cars than we did last year, so of course this is very hard work. We don't even have money for advertising or endorsements or discounts, so must survive on the quality of our products alone. Nonetheless, we believe in our mission and that it is worth the sacrifice of time and the never ending barrage of negativity by those who wish us ill. So it goes. The world must move to sustainable energy and it must do so now.
Given inherent overlap in areas of development, Apple and Tesla constantly vie for each other's engineers. Musk in 2015 said attrition rates swing in Tesla's favor by a ratio of five to one, hinting that those who left the company were bad actors. At the time, Apple was reportedly offering some Tesla employees $250,000 signing bonuses and 60 percent raises to jump ship. Whether those incentives are still in effect is unknown.
Musk, who once called Apple the "Tesla graveyard," is also the cause of recent instability in his company's stock. Rants on social media, public takedowns during earnings calls and an August tweet about taking Tesla private have all contributed to a 15 percent dip in share prices.
Today's report comes on the heels of news that former Mac hardware engineer Doug Field returned to Apple after a nearly five-year stint as Tesla's SVP of Engineering. Field is reportedly working on Project Titan under Bob Mansfield, who previously served as Apple's SVP of hardware engineering.
Comments
Queue the violin music... if this is the kind of thing they have to put up with, along with lower pay, I can see why they might want to get out of there.
And people complained about Apple being a cult!
A signing bonus + better salary is now better than what Tesla offers.
Tesla could be facing a major brain drain. I’m sure Google is “poaching” also...
Musk's admission that he is sleeping in his office at Tesla is an admission of failure -- it's certainly nothing to brag about.
Long before cities are inundated permanently though, other impacts will be dire. If our blood pH dropped by as much as ocean pH has dropped, seizures and sudden death ensue:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans-annotated.html
https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/ocean-acidification
This is just one consequence. As you said, climate change is not a cult.
I worked in a situation a bit like that years ago... i.e.: I should have been happy for the privilege to work under such brilliance, and be willing to sacrifice pay, family time, etc. for the cause. Unfortunately, the statement *really* rubbed me the wrong way given that experience.
No doubt... real or not, it acts like a cult. And that immediately puts up my skeptical danger alerts, as legit science and movements usually don't have to act that way.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609620/global-warmings-worst-case-projections-look-increasingly-likely/
A huge problem with models is the reluctance of climate scientists to present the worst-case scenarios, which it seems in the end, might be the most accurate.
This isn't a zero-sum game, and for Apple to win Tesla does not have to lose. But I sincerely hope that Apple makes no moves to partner with or invest in Tesla, because the place seems to be a bit of a train wreck right now. Let it sort out its own issues.
McDonnell Douglas DC-X and DC-XA was a program for a returning a launch vehicle and landing it upright for complete reuse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-X 1993
Elon should get credit for ambition, as should Bezos, Paul Allen, Richard Branson, Burt Rutan, and many, many, others, but most of what Space X has done to date is based on previous NASA and industry work, and it isn't like their isn't anyone else out there doing innovation in Space and Aviation;
https://www.stratolaunch.com
https://www.blueorigin.com
https://www.virgingalactic.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Launch_Alliance
Take another look at the statement attributed to Tesla and ask yourself whether you could ever, even in your wildest diversions of imagination, see that statement coming from Tim Cook, or even from the Steve Jobs that returned to Apple in 1997. No way, not in a million years, and not even if Apple tanked tomorrow. Elon Musk is an amazing person with an incredible intellect and boundless passion. But he is not yet the kind of leader he needs to be for Tesla right now. He needs someone like Tim Cook to help him reinvigorate the culture at Tesla. He also needs to recognize his own limitations before he burns out himself and Tesla, both of which have amazing potential that would be a shame to waste.