Yesterday the Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent a couple of darts to Apple during his presentation of results quarterly. This would not be the first time the mogul has issued comments against the apple giant. Something that seems curious to us because Elon Musk is known to use an iPhone as his personal phone. In fact, Elon Musk has been known to switch iPhones regularly.
The comments began after Musk asked about plans to allow competitors to use Tesla’s electric vehicle charger network. The owner of Tesla – PayPal and SpaceX as well – pointed out that the e-vehicle giant’s intention is not to hit or hurt its competitors with practices such as “Apple’s walled garden.”
Elon Musk criticizes Apple during Tesla results presentation
When Musk refers to Apple’s “walled garden,” he is referring to the way the apple giant handles his company’s policies. Specifically speaking, is criticizing that Apple is a closed platform where it has full control. Since Apple dictates which software can – and which cannot – be installed on the iPhone. In fact, Apple is under scrutiny for its strict adherence to platform policies.
This is why Musk answers the initial question with that his main intention is not to negatively affect his competitors, since hopes everyone can benefit from Tesla’s electric vehicle charger network. He also emphasized that his objective is to support the arrival of sustainable energy.
But this was not all, since when asked about Tesla batteries, Musk again made reference to Apple. He explained that contrary to what people think, Tesla does not use as much cobalt as Apple does: «I think Apple uses almost 100% cobalt in their batteries, cell phones, and laptops«.
In case you don’t know, the Cobalt is a necessary metal for lithium-ion battery cells used in electronic devices.. Musk claimed that on average Tesla could use 2% cobalt compared to Apple’s 100% cobalt.
What about Cobalt and companies like Apple or Tesla?
The Cobalt is a metal that is linked to human rights abuse. This is because it has been proven that in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, children are used as laborers to get cobalt. In fact, in 2016 Apple was criticized for allegedly buying batteries from a Chinese manufacturer that sourced its cobalt from an infringing producer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Despite this, Apple maintains a list of all its cobalt smelters and refineries and audits them regularly. In 2020 all of their cobalt suppliers were audited and there was no problem.
This is not the first time – and we are sure it will not be the last – that Apple and Tesla have had disputes. In 2015, Musk called Apple the “Tesla graveyard” because “if you can’t get into Tesla, you’re going to work at Apple.”