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Tesla design chief takes shot at Apple, claims there's 'nothing to look forward to'

Tesla Senior Design Executive Franz von Holzhausen recently criticized Apple, stating that the company's products are "just a slight refinement on the same thing."

In a recent interview with Spike's Car Radio, the Tesla executive took shots at Apple, insinuating that the company isn't breaking any ground with its product design.

"The sad part about Apple products now is like there's nothing to look forward to. I feel like it's just a continuation," Holzhausen said. "It's just a slight refinement on the same thing."

Additionally, Holzhausen said that "inspirationally, it's been hard to get super motivated by what they're doing."

The Tesla design chief did acknowledge that he wears an Apple Watch, but said he only does so "because of the fitness thing side to it."

"Otherwise I haven't really found much purpose to [the Apple Watch], other than the fitness part," he said.

Holzhausen joined Tesla in 2008 after stints at Mazda, General Motors, and Volkswagen. During his time at Tesla, Holzhausen has been responsible for leading design on the Tesla Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, and Cybertruck.

This isn't the first time that a Tesla executive has taken a pot-shot at Apple. Back in 2015, CEO Elon Musk called the Cupertino tech giant the "Tesla graveyard, stating that Apple is where former Tesla employees end up if they "don't make it."

Although Tesla and Apple aren't direct rivals, the latter company is known to be working on an all-electric "Apple Car" that could bring both companies into competition with each other. Some analysts believe that Apple could be Tesla's biggest threat if the "Apple Car" comes to fruition.

Apple and Tesla both regularly poach employees and engineers from each other. Most recently, Apple hired a Tesla engineer to work on its own secretive self-driving car project.



72 Comments

Xed 5 Years · 2966 comments

This from a company that has been milking the Model S design with a "slight refinement on the same thing" for a decade? It's a testament to a great design from the start… but fucking odd for Holzhausen to say.

21 Likes · 0 Dislikes
tyler82 19 Years · 1109 comments

Xed said:
This from a company that has been filing the Model S design for a decade?

Don’t be so unfair. They also copied the Lotus design. 

12 Likes · 0 Dislikes
pizzaboxmac 5 Years · 34 comments

Says the company which designed a pickup truck resembling  the head of a spear than a pickup.

10 Likes · 0 Dislikes
yojimbo007 13 Years · 1165 comments

Hilarious… specially coming from this dude.. U cant tell one Tesla from another sice the getgo… and then the JOKE called Cybertruck.. 

Thanks for the Laugh Franz! 😂

8 Likes · 0 Dislikes
crowley 16 Years · 10431 comments

The Tesla design chief did acknowledge that he wears an Apple Watch, but said he only does so "because of the fitness thing side to it."

"Otherwise I haven't really found much purpose to [the Apple Watch], other than the fitness part," he said.

I don't see much purpose to Teslas, other than the driving part.

I'm sure he's a very smart guy at whatever he does, but sheesh, what an idiot.

8 Likes · 0 Dislikes