Tesla is actively poaching Apple employees as the car company tries to model itself after the Silicon Valley giant, according to Bloomberg.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is reportedly "enamoured with Apple and relishes comparisons" between himself and the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. He told Bloomberg that "from a design perspective, [Apple] is relatively closely aligned."
Tesla has now hired more than 150 former Apple employees, according to Bloomberg. That means Tesla has hired more workers from Apple than from any other car company.
Tesla doesn't just want former Apple workers. It wants the company's products to be like Apple also. Design consultant Joe Nuxoll said that they try and design the car's touch screens "so that it requires not a whole lot of thinking.... It's more like an iPhone than a Ford."
This hiring drive goes both ways. Musk told Bloomberg that Apple also "tries very hard to recruit from Tesla." The company apparently offers 60% salary bumps and $250,000 signing bonuses. "But so far they’ve actually recruited very few people," Musk added.
Apple's push to acquire former Tesla employees is significant in light of the news that Apple-registered cars were recently spotted in the Bay Area with camera rigs mounted on the roofs. There's been speculation that the cars are for an in-house Street View competitor — or even experimental self-driving car technology.
