Elon Musk Calls Apple's Car a "Missed Opportunity"

At the Code conference this evening, Elon Musk joined Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher onstage to talk about his varied and eclectic pursuits. And when the talk turned to autonomous vehicles, Musk was sure to share his opinions on what he perceives to be Tesla’s biggest competition.


Nope, not Google. Musk doesn’t consider Google’s self-driving car program to be a direct competitor with Tesla—“they’re not a car company.” But he did have some thoughts on Apple’s rumored vehicle, which he does see as a direct competitor. Nemesis, maybe? Like, smackdown parameters have now been drawn.

“I would say that it’s great that they’re doing this and I hope it works out.”
HOPE IT WORKS OUT???
“I think they should have embarked on this project sooner, actually... I don’t think they’ll be in volume production until 2020.”
Shoulda really gotten on this sooner, Jony!

“It’s just a missed opportunity. It’s a couple years... they’ll make a good car and be successful.”
I mean is there anything worse than calling something a “missed opportunity” before it even exists?

Speaking of opportunities, Musk is planning another Tesla event before the end of the year to specifically address autonomous technology, which he believes will be ready in two years. What exactly will he announce? “Let me just say we’re going to do the obvious thing.” And maybe work on that bus?

In other transportation news, Musk said he believed that “something will happen in the future” with Hyperloop and hinted that Space X would definitely be building some type of Hyperloop demonstration. All in all, he’s just trying to make the world a better place, you guys. “It’s just about increasing the probability that the future will be good.”

You can watch the whole video for more Musk Thoughts™ on neural lace, production schedules, Hyperloop pod design, landing rockets on barges, going to Mars, battery factories, simulation talk in hot tubs, and his project to save the world from a dystopian AI future.