Tesla owner Elon Musk elevated the rivalry with Apple when it comes to the computer tech company building its own electric car, telling the German newspaper Handelsblatt this week that Apple has become the "Tesla graveyard."
When the newspaper's reporter asked Musk about Apple hiring away "important" engineers from Tesla as it gears up for its electric car project as reported by other media outlets,
Musk scoffed, according to a MarketWatch story posted Friday.
"Important engineers? They have hired people we've fired," Musk told Handelsblatt. "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."
When asked if he was taking the Apple electric car project seriously enough, Musk did not back down.
"Did you ever take a look at the Apple Watch?" Musk said with a chuckle. "You can't just go to a supplier like Foxconn and say: 'Build me a car.'"
Musk did concede in the German newspaper article it was the "next logical thing (for Apple) to finally offer a significant innovation."
The irony in Musk's comment is that
Bloomberg Businessweek reported back in February that it was actually Tesla that had been poaching Apple of its employees, 150 in all, according to the business media outlet.
"[Tesla] has hired at least 150 former Apple employees, more than from any other company, even carmakers," wrote Bloomberg Business then. "The former Apple staffers work in many areas of the 6,000-employee automaker, including engineering and law.
"A former Tesla worker who didn't want to be named says that Musk is enamored with Apple and relishes comparisons between himself and its co-founder [Steve Jobs]," the Bloomberg article continued.
Musk's comments appeared to fire up social media as well, leaving some to wonder why he decided to go negative in public against the tech giant.
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