Apple’s auto ambitions sideswipe electric motorcycle startup
SAN FRANCISCO: Apple Inc’s aggressive recruitment of auto experts as it explores building a car, has left a promising electric motorcycle startup in the dust.
Mission Motors, whose sleek electric bikes drew comparisons to Tesla’s cars, ceased operations in May after losing some of its top engineering talent to Apple, according to sources.
Though it has never openly acknowledged looking to build an electric car, Apple has recruited dozens of auto experts, many from car makers such as Ford and Mercedes-Benz, which shrugged off the departures.
But such defections can be devastating for startups. But former chief executive Derek Kaufman thinks the company could have carried on if it had not lost key employees.
“Mission had a great group of engineers, specifically electric drive expertise,” Kaufman said. “Apple knew that — they wanted it, and they went and got it.”
A spokesman for Apple declined to comment.
San Francisco-based Mission is not the first to run up against Apple’s auto ambitions. Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has publicly chided the iPhone maker for trying to poach engineers.
In February, electric-car battery maker A123 Systems sued Apple for recruiting some of its top engineers, claiming it had been forced to abandon key projects. A123 and Apple later settled on undisclosed terms.
With a research and development team of several hundred, A123 could weather the departures, CEO Jason Forcier said. But a small startup could be crippled. “We put $1 billion into A123,” he said. “Startups get $10-$20 million — it’s nothing.” Mission raised about $14 million, according to investment database CrunchBase.
Scot Harden, a vice president at electric bike maker Zero Motorcycles, said his company has not suffered defections thanks to a stable base of investors. “You have to have investors behind you who really see that future.”
That competition is stiff, was illustrated earlier this year when Uber snatched 50 people from Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics lab — to help it build a selfdriving car. REUTERS