Musk: Tesla Isn't Losing Engineers To Apple (It's The Opposite!)

Earlier this year, rumors surfaced Apple was working on some sort of automotive project. Some believed it was an autonomous car; others felt it was more CarPlay related than anything else. While those rumors have (mostly) subsided, the idea is still there. Part of the rumor mill involved Tesla losing bunches of engineers to Apple, conjuring tales of a troubled Tesla. Speaking after Tesla's earnings report yesterday, CEO Elon Musk said his company hasn't lost many employees to Apple at all. In fact, they're the ones taking Apple employees away from Cupertino.Project Titan, Apple's clandestine automated car initiative (we all assume) was said to have decimated Tesla's engineering squad. Musk says that's just not right:

I certainly hope Apple gets into the car business. That would be great. But we're not seeing any significant attrition of engineers to Apple, for anything. Cars or otherwise. Anyone can find this out by going on LinkedIn. If you look at the trailing 12 months, Tesla has recruited something like five times as many people from Apple as Apple has from Tesla.

There you have it. The mental imagery of Musk in the Tesla lab, wondering where all his engineers have gone while an executive assistant explains they've gone to Apple leading Musk to scream "Cook!" at the top of his lungs like Kirk yelled "Khan!" all those years ago — not likely.

The closest we've been to any kind of Apple car is minivans licensed to the company, outfitted with what many believe to be mapping equipment.

Via: Venture Beat