The only thing standing between you and your Tesla might be Apple poaching Elon Musk’s employees.
Apple Insider reports that Tesla employees are leaving the company to go work on Apple’s top-secret car program, or “Project Titan,” according to a “well-placed source,” and the brain drain is affecting Tesla’s ability to deliver vehicles on time.
The report cites that the number of employees giving Tesla the boot for Apple is creating such a “big impact,” that it might be partially responsible for the delays behind the Model X crossover, the Model S sedan and potentially its mass-market Model 3.
“Apple is thought to have as many as 1,000 employees working on Project Titan, with many of those coming over from Tesla,” writes Apple Insider. “The hires run the gamut from production managers to senior engineers.”
In February, BloombergBusiness reported that the cherry-picking was going the other direction — that Tesla was hiring Apple employees. “The company has hired at least 150 former Apple employees, more than from any other company, even carmakers,” they reported.
Musk told Bloomberg then that Apple was “offering $250,000 signing bonuses and 60 percent salary increases,” and that “Apple tries very hard to recruit from Tesla. But so far they’ve actually recruited very few people.”
Holy moly, the race for the car of the future is heating up. Via Reuters, Porsche and Audi just announced prototypes of electric cars they have coming down the pipeline to challenge Tesla, with plans to launch around 2018.
While Tesla is still ahead in the electric car game, that Porsche is sharp as hell. Take a look. This is going to get interesting to say the very least.
