Elon Musk: Apple Is The 'Graveyard' For Fired Tesla Staff

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Elon Musk says that, if you ever get fired from Tesla, you can always go to work for Apple. Ouch.

Dismissing claims that Apple is poaching key members of staff from his own firm to work on its long-rumoured self-driving car project, Musk said: “Important engineers? They have hired people we’ve fired. 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.”
 
At least they are working somewhere.
As though it is so shameful to work at Apple?

I don't necessarily agree with where the company has gone, but a job is a job.
I didn't realize that Elon Musk is an elitist Steve Jobs wannabe.

What an asshole.
 
Lol I kinda like this response. They are in the aesthetic industry. What better way to make someone driven by the superficial feel worse than play their game.


I wouldn't care per say. Jobs a job.
 
Seriously, like Elon is really going to say anything positive about Apple, under the circumstances... :rolleyes:

More click-bait trolling.
 
Red Falcon said:
At least they are working somewhere.
As though it is so shameful to work at Apple?

I don't necessarily agree with where the company has gone, but a job is a job.
I didn't realize that Elon Musk is an elitist Steve Jobs wannabe.

What an asshole.
Click to expand...

To a certain degree, yes a job is a job. But you have to look at the department that they are talking about. This isn't I am a designer of electronics and am going to work at Apple and help create the next iPad or Mac Book.

This is a I am a car designer going to work at Apple to create a car. Apple is not a car company. So in that regards, yes I would call that shameful to be working at apple to design a car. Along the same lines of somebody that designing a Porsche gong to work at a company making go carts would be shameful.

It is money, there is nothing wrong in theory with working for the company. But you are taking a step backwards in doing so.

Like he goes on to say in his quote there. It is good they are investing money in the area, but they are not a car company. They don't know how to design and build cars.
 
Stimpy88 said:
Seriously, like Elon is really going to say anything positive about Apple, under the circumstances... :rolleyes:

More click-bait trolling.
Click to expand...

He did kind of say something positive about them. In a back handed way kind of, but he did say it was good that they were investing money in this area and trying to move in this direction as it would be the next true breakthrough they could make as small changes to electronics aren't really anything major. So he did seem to think they were doing something good here.
 
That's the most childish man-child thing to say ever. He clearly feels his business interests are threatened even by the rumor that another company is doing something to potentially enter into competition. If he had faith in his products or the people he hires that have the vision to create things for his firms, he wouldn't try to brush of a competitor with little boy type name calling. Instead he'd get behind his employees and his products to support them by showing confidence in what the company sells.
 
Exavior said:
To a certain degree, yes a job is a job. But you have to look at the department that they are talking about. This isn't I am a designer of electronics and am going to work at Apple and help create the next iPad or Mac Book.

This is a I am a car designer going to work at Apple to create a car. Apple is not a car company. So in that regards, yes I would call that shameful to be working at apple to design a car. Along the same lines of somebody that designing a Porsche gong to work at a company making go carts would be shameful.

It is money, there is nothing wrong in theory with working for the company. But you are taking a step backwards in doing so.

Like he goes on to say in his quote there. It is good they are investing money in the area, but they are not a car company. They don't know how to design and build cars.
Click to expand...


Umm.. I would look at it very differently. They are going to apple to design a car outside of an established company. That means they get to decide how to do things. Especially if they didn't like how things were done else where. I would much rather blaze a new trail then follow everybody else.

That all being said I know nothing about making cars for tesla or apple, but before this I had a lot of respect for Elon and Tesla. After this talking bad about ex-employees (regardless of reality) is just bad taste IMO. If apple is indeed throwing big time money at these people you would be stupid to not entertain that. Tesla already had it's big stock pop. You aren't going to be making much money of stock options anymore. Personally I would follow the money unless you feel you will be hurting your career goals substantially. Making a lot of money allows you to take much larger career risks later on chasing your dreams or just retiring early.

Anyways, I think the stress might just be getting to elon right now. Hopefully he returns to not being a dick.
 
Who care's about Musk's comment? I'd expect him to say that. Musk may call it a graveyard, but I see positives in that. Maybe these engineers flourish at Apple, where they couldn't at Tesla. Is Tesla the perfect work environment or something?
 
Dawill said:
Umm.. I would look at it very differently. They are going to apple to design a car outside of an established company. That means they get to decide how to do things. Especially if they didn't like how things were done else where. I would much rather blaze a new trail then follow everybody else...
Click to expand...

+1 this is what I was going to respond as well... Will also add some people might get an opportunity they might not have in an established company. Small fish/big bond to big fish/little pond scenario.
 
Dawill said:
Umm.. I would look at it very differently. They are going to apple to design a car outside of an established company. That means they get to decide how to do things. Especially if they didn't like how things were done else where. I would much rather blaze a new trail then follow everybody else.

That all being said I know nothing about making cars for tesla or apple, but before this I had a lot of respect for Elon and Tesla. After this talking bad about ex-employees (regardless of reality) is just bad taste IMO. If apple is indeed throwing big time money at these people you would be stupid to not entertain that. Tesla already had it's big stock pop. You aren't going to be making much money of stock options anymore. Personally I would follow the money unless you feel you will be hurting your career goals substantially. Making a lot of money allows you to take much larger career risks later on chasing your dreams or just retiring early.

Anyways, I think the stress might just be getting to elon right now. Hopefully he returns to not being a dick.
Click to expand...

I am not saying that Telsa is the best place to work for. They were screwing people over early on (might still be) by forcing people to take jobs as contractors instead of employees to avoid paying them benefits. So I don't think that they are the best place to be at either. I was just trying to point out why one could view it as being a tad shameful to work for Apple in their car department for any experienced mechanic. Making money and a job being shameful don't have to be separate though.
 
Media perception is everything and his comment is taken out of context. He also said, "Did you ever take a look at the Apple Watch?" and he's right. Apple sells crappy overpriced stuff Made in China. I'd rather support a company that takes pride in engineering, quality and is made in the US.
 
Elon makes a good point. If he fired the engineers that Apple is now hiring, what kind of car should one expect from Apple then? There's a high probability it won't be good because these engineers were failures at Tesla.
 
Exavior said:
To a certain degree, yes a job is a job. But you have to look at the department that they are talking about. This isn't I am a designer of electronics and am going to work at Apple and help create the next iPad or Mac Book.
Click to expand...

Lets see. When Tesla got into the car business, they were people going to work for a guy who made his money processing payments. Apple is about a 1000x sexier than THAT.

Apple is making in car software, and may be making a car. Moving on to either of those from making software to run a car someplace else that thinks the car is an entertainment system powered by software really isn't a big deal.

I also think he is stupid for running his mouth. If I were apple, I'd be pull aside all the former tesla hires, have the ninja lawyering team interview them and fund a nice libel/slander lawsuit. His statement implies that all those people do poor work nobody would want. Unless that is all well documented for every former tesla worker at apple (as in all were dismissed with cause), it's a pretty harmful statement professionally speaking. It's a pretty asshole move to personally attack those people because he is in a pissing contest with apple.
 
Exavior said:
It is money, there is nothing wrong in theory with working for the company. But you are taking a step backwards in doing so.
Click to expand...

Or - one could argue - a major opportunity. It's easy to be one person in a large department. Go to a place that has no experience with what you are doing - however - and you are creating the department, processes, etc.
 
Dawill said:
...They are going to apple to design a car outside of an established company. That means they get to decide how to do things...
Click to expand...
I agree that Elon could have kept his mouth shut. I feel that this is the point though. If they were fired from Tesla and are now (possibly?) making crucial engineering/design decisions for a company that hasn't made a car before, what can we expect of the quality?
I kind of see it as Musk protecting his industry. If an unqualified company started procuring (potentially) unqualified people to design/construct/sell a (potentially) inferrior product in a market that is still looked down upon by most of the public, it could harm the rising image of the electric car industry.
 
Apple are claiming they are taking the good people making out like they would rather work for apple then Elon, so I think its a very nice back at ya apple comment.

We all know how Apple make up shit all the time, some of you still believe it.
 
Freebo said:
Apple are claiming they are taking the good people making out like they would rather work for apple then Elon, so I think its a very nice back at ya apple comment.

We all know how Apple make up shit all the time, some of you still believe it.
Click to expand...

Correct. Apple announcing that they're poaching engineers from Tesla put Tesla in a negative light that forced Tesla to respond. Don't blame Musk for stating facts when Apple should've kept its mouth shut.
 
Red Falcon said:
At least they are working somewhere.
As though it is so shameful to work at Apple?

I don't necessarily agree with where the company has gone, but a job is a job.
I didn't realize that Elon Musk is an elitist Steve Jobs wannabe.

What an asshole.
Click to expand...

Steve Jobs was an asshole, Elon Musk is not.
 
Topweasel said:
Any proof that Musk is not an asshole? He just basically called all of his previous employees at work castoffs that he didn't want. That seems kind of dickish.
Click to expand...

Musk isn't denying his own daughter to avoid paying child support, cheating his partner Woz over the Atari gig, above paying DMV registration, treating his current employees like shit, etc. like Jobs did.
 
Kalabalana said:
Steve Jobs was an asshole, Elon Musk is not.
Click to expand...

When he speaks of workers that he has fired as being "so lowly as to work at Apple", yeah, that's the exact definition of an asshole, of which he completely is.
After that statement, I lost all respect for him.
 
Dick move.

And he likely "fired" them after they gave notice they're going to work for Apple, not that he fired them ahead of time for poor performance and then they went to Apple.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
That's the most childish man-child thing to say ever. He clearly feels his business interests are threatened even by the rumor that another company is doing something to potentially enter into competition. If he had faith in his products or the people he hires that have the vision to create things for his firms, he wouldn't try to brush of a competitor with little boy type name calling. Instead he'd get behind his employees and his products to support them by showing confidence in what the company sells.
Click to expand...

I don't have a problem with it. In case it's not clear, he was answering a rather dickish question to begin with.
 
amddragonpc said:
Elon makes a good point. If he fired the engineers that Apple is now hiring, what kind of car should one expect from Apple then? There's a high probability it won't be good because these engineers were failures at Tesla.
Click to expand...

I would say that is probably an exaggeration in most cases. Most likely Apple poached these folks with better offers.
 
So you take the people that got fired (whos knows why) you hire them to work on a new car and expect greatness? Bah, what i see is a product that is barely road worthy because despite it's intuitive controls is garbage for driving because apple doesn't know how to code for vehicles. Lets not pretend an ipad and a modern abs system are even remotely similar for a moment and ask why the engineers got fired? I hear more freedom at apple, how much more do you need when tesla was built from the ground up on new ideas and has tried implementations of tech that haven't been successful in the past and produced an amazing car.... Tesla is the basic story of apple but with cars. Electrics were stupid and lame until the roadster, what do you think the ipad was? Rebooted, Updated,sexier rehash that sold well and the imitators and nay sayers rolled into production.... I say if apple wants Teslas dregs, cool, give them jobs but i don't expect great things from apple when the rubber meets the road..... See what i did there :)
 
You really have to be an Apple fan boy to be offended by this. So much butthurt in some of the thread posts its actually quite funny.
 
Exavior said:
Apple is not a car company.
Click to expand...

Tesla Motors was founded by an electrical engineer and a software engineer. Neither of them were "car people"

But they obviously hired some "car people" along the way... which eventually made Tesla a car company.

So what makes you think Apple can't become a car company too?
 
actually comments like that to prevent the lose of the good employees. Companies with large war chests tend to hire the rotten apples so they can make it seem like the best employees are being hired away so that the employess who are still there start wondering how it looks to not have gotten an offer so that if they get a bigger offer along with the agreement to say the top employees are all hired away so the company trying to steal employees gets the actual designers dirt cheap when the company loses the people applying the designers concepts. That is why a companies cash reserves are called a war chest as it allows a company to either commit hostile take overs or prevent them by throwing money at the key employees and telling the slightly less critical that they will get their bonus when the take over fails. The bad apples no one tells because they hope to lose them to another company and not have to deal with law suits when they fire them for cause. grin.
 
mi7chy said:
Musk isn't denying his own daughter to avoid paying child support, cheating his partner Woz over the Atari gig, above paying DMV registration, treating his current employees like shit, etc. like Jobs did.
Click to expand...

look at the glassdoor reviews of tesla engineering employees. I beg to differ.
 
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