The Tesla Graveyard: Elon Musk Calls Out Apple

• Year to date, Tesla Motors Inc TSLA has outperformed Apple Inc. AAPL, gaining nearly 2 percent versus a 1 percent decline in Apple.
• Speaking with a German newspaper, Tesla CEO Elon Musk dismissed concerns that Apple was poaching the company's talent, saying that Apple has "hired people we've fired."
• Musk added that, "we always jokingly call Apple the 'Tesla Graveyard.' If you don't make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple."

While Musk said that he is not worried about Apple poaching Tesla's top talent, he did issue a word of caution for Apple's move to cars in general.

"It's good that Apple is moving and investing in this direction," Musk said. "But cars are very complex compared to phones or smartwatches. You can't just go to a supplier like Foxconn and say: Build me a car."

Related Link: The 21 Most Inspirational Elon Musk Quotes

Musk issued a not-so-subtle dig at Apple's innovation (emphasis added): "But for Apple, the car is the next logical thing to finally offer a significant innovation. A new pencil or a bigger iPad alone were not relevant enough."

Previously, Musk suggested that it would be good for Apple to enter the car market in terms of driving awareness and innovation. At that time, he also said that Tesla was recruiting five times as many employees from Apple as Apple did from Tesla, 9to5mac reported.