Tesla scores two more top Apple designers, just one day apart

[William Gayde]

Two of Apple's top designers have left the company to begin work at Tesla. The announcements come just one day apart and do not reflect well on Apple's ability to retain talent. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has referred to Apple as "the Tesla graveyard" in the past, but it's clear this turnover definitely goes both ways.

Chris Lattner, the creator of Apple's Swift programming language, announced his departure from Apple on Tuesday. Swift is an open source language used to create apps for Apple devices, so it's no surprise that Tesla wanted to pursue this kind of talent for their team. They published a blog post welcoming him that same day stating that he will be leading their autopilot software and engineering team. His departure is a big loss for Apple and is scheduled for later this month.

The second key employee to leave for Tesla is Matt Casebolt. Matt was a director of product design at Apple and worked on the Mac Pro and MacBook. He led the development of the MacBook Pro and its Touch Bar feature. The design team, led by Jony Ive, has typically had a very low turnover so Casebolt's move to Tesla is not a good sign for Apple's design future.

Apple is a big company with 116,000 employees so departures are bound to happen, but the growing trend of high profile workers leaving for other companies can only mean internal troubles. Apple added only 6,000 full-time jobs in 2016, way down from over 17,000 the year before.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/67742-tesla-scores-two-more-top-apple-designers-one.html

 

[Greg S]

Apple doesn't innovate well. Successful people want their own success.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Well let's be honest... what is the scope for innovation for a laptop? Vs going to Tesla? I think Tesla is just doing a lot of new and interesting things and someone who wants to challenge themselves with tomorrow's problems are more likely to find them at Tesla than they are in the MacBook division aren't they?

 

[psycros]

The writing is on the wall. With Apple now "innovating" by removing features and adding useless crap like the touchbar, all their doing is alienating both customers and frustrating their best designers. Cook has no vision and the Apple faithful don't have the brains to demand better.

 

[VitalyT]

Cook looks like a fake Jobs, and a pathetic copycat whose understanding of innovation stretches only as far as knowing how to spell the word.

 

[alabama man]

"Matt was a director of product design at Apple and worked on the Mac Pro and MacBook."

Was he the guy who designed how to use cheapest parts possible and still sell it for premium laptop prices?

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

"Matt was a director of product design at Apple and worked on the Mac Pro and MacBook."

Was he the guy who designed how to use cheapest parts possible and still sell it for premium laptop prices?

You can now see why his services are in demand.