While predicting that vehicles that could not drive themselves would become a "strange anachronism" before too long, Tesla's owner, Elon Musk, has said it is an "open secret" that Apple is making a rival electric car.
This was said by the tech entrepreneur during an interview with the BBC in Los Angeles.
Despite running at a loss, Tesla vies with Nissan and BMW to be the world's bestselling electric-car brand.
Several of its engineers have been hired by rivals, including China-backed Faraday Future and Apple in the recent months and this is also a challenge for Tesla.
Even as Apple has recently registered a number of automobile related internet domains tha included apple.car and apple.auto, the company has not formally announced it is working on a vehicle.
It was "obvious" that Apple would try to make a compelling car of its own, Musk said.
"It's pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it," he said.
However the iPhone maker is not considered as a threat by the Tesla chief.
"It will expand the industry," he said.
"Tesla will still aspire to make the most compelling electric vehicles, and that would be our goal, while at the same time helping other companies to make electric cars as well," Musk said.
At a time in the recent future Musk sees driving yourself would become a hobby rather than a necessity and all cars would be electric and autonomous.
In recent years, one of the best selling electric cars have been Tesla's Model S - a sports car that ranges from £56,000 to £85,000 depending on the chosen battery capacity and performance. A number of autonomous driving features have been added to the car in recent months by its Autopilot feature.
"[With] the current version of Summon, the car will come and find you if you're on private property. The car will exit the garage, close the garage behind it and come over to you. This is the first baby step - ultimately you'll be able to summon the car from New York if you're living in LA, and it will drive across the country, charge itself at the various locations and come to you," Musk said.
While this may sound like a vision of the distant future, Musk believes this can be a possibility in "a couple of years."
A number of other car makers have shown off innovations in electric vehicles and automated driving at both last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and this week's Detroit Motor Show.
The two biggest innovations in the industry since the moving production line were electrification and autonomy, Musk said.
"In the long term, nobody will buy a car unless it's autonomous. Owning a car that is not self-driving in the long term will be like owning a horse - you would own it and use it for sentimental reasons but not for daily use," he said.
Tesla is making losses at present even as the company produces only luxury models. The cheaper Model 3 version would be critical for its future, admitted Tesla founder. The new version would go into production at the end of 2017.
"Unless there's an affordable car, we will only have a small impact on the world. We need to make a car that most people can afford, in order to have a substantial impact," Musk said.
(Source:www.bbc.com)
This was said by the tech entrepreneur during an interview with the BBC in Los Angeles.
Despite running at a loss, Tesla vies with Nissan and BMW to be the world's bestselling electric-car brand.
Several of its engineers have been hired by rivals, including China-backed Faraday Future and Apple in the recent months and this is also a challenge for Tesla.
Even as Apple has recently registered a number of automobile related internet domains tha included apple.car and apple.auto, the company has not formally announced it is working on a vehicle.
It was "obvious" that Apple would try to make a compelling car of its own, Musk said.
"It's pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it," he said.
However the iPhone maker is not considered as a threat by the Tesla chief.
"It will expand the industry," he said.
"Tesla will still aspire to make the most compelling electric vehicles, and that would be our goal, while at the same time helping other companies to make electric cars as well," Musk said.
At a time in the recent future Musk sees driving yourself would become a hobby rather than a necessity and all cars would be electric and autonomous.
In recent years, one of the best selling electric cars have been Tesla's Model S - a sports car that ranges from £56,000 to £85,000 depending on the chosen battery capacity and performance. A number of autonomous driving features have been added to the car in recent months by its Autopilot feature.
"[With] the current version of Summon, the car will come and find you if you're on private property. The car will exit the garage, close the garage behind it and come over to you. This is the first baby step - ultimately you'll be able to summon the car from New York if you're living in LA, and it will drive across the country, charge itself at the various locations and come to you," Musk said.
While this may sound like a vision of the distant future, Musk believes this can be a possibility in "a couple of years."
A number of other car makers have shown off innovations in electric vehicles and automated driving at both last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and this week's Detroit Motor Show.
The two biggest innovations in the industry since the moving production line were electrification and autonomy, Musk said.
"In the long term, nobody will buy a car unless it's autonomous. Owning a car that is not self-driving in the long term will be like owning a horse - you would own it and use it for sentimental reasons but not for daily use," he said.
Tesla is making losses at present even as the company produces only luxury models. The cheaper Model 3 version would be critical for its future, admitted Tesla founder. The new version would go into production at the end of 2017.
"Unless there's an affordable car, we will only have a small impact on the world. We need to make a car that most people can afford, in order to have a substantial impact," Musk said.
(Source:www.bbc.com)
