New York Times:
Electric-car battery maker A123 Systems has sued Apple Inc for poaching top engineers to build a large-scale battery division, according to a court filing that offered further evidence that the iPhone maker may be developing a car.
Apple has been poaching engineers with deep expertise in car systems, including from Tesla Inc, and talking with industry experts and automakers with the ultimate aim of learning how to make its own electric car, an auto industry source said last week.
The lawsuit is interesting, but more notable is the evidence this lends to the possibility of an Apple car of some sort. If Apple is building an automotive software platform, a Car OS, why would they need battery expertise?
So just after being sued for colluding with other companies not to poach employees and being forced to pay a huge fine for doing so. It is now being sued for doing the opposite.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Makes you wonder if the world would be a better place without lawyers.
Am I the only one thinking that Apple is hiring battery expertise to develop new battery technology? Batteries are in their iPhones, iPads, iPods, MacBooks and soon Apple Watch and battery time is constantly a discussion point.
Maybe they are just trying to develop some kind of new battery technology that can store more power per volume?
You can sue, or at least start to sue, almost anyone for almost anything. Once the ‘suits’ start filing motions and a judge begins looking at actual causes is when the wheels tend to fall off. In this case:
“The engineers jumped ship to pursue similar programs at Apple, in violation of their employment agreements, A123 said in a filing earlier this month in Massachusetts federal court.”
Sounds like it’s the employees breaking whatever covenants they had with their employers. I don’t know about labor laws in the Commonwealth, but Apple’s problem in California was that it colluded to prevent people moving to other jobs in a state were non-compete clauses are invalid (for the vast majority of workers).
When I first read about Apple developing electric cars and such, I immediately thought of their expertise in manufacturing Lithium batteries and how they could leverage that for this initiative. It appears that Apple is poised to graduate from small powerfully useful devices to much, much larger possibilities. I mean, Which other company is better poised to tackle the pressing issue of climate control through greenhouse gas omission with an electric car for the masses. Cars are mechanical + electrical + computers Apple has mastered two of these categories. Assuming they are able to work out the mechanical with the same finesses as their iProducts, this could be a truly revolutionary disruption with a global, environmental and sociological impact. There are billions upon billions of individuals who aspire to own a car. Perhaps, Apple believes this is way to serve them without destroying the planet. And if they are working on cars, you know Apple is also working on all the supportive components, like clean energy, energy storage (better batteries), energy distribution, etc.
Car battery or just plain battery development? For all their devices, a battery breakthrough is the next logical frontier. Arguably, the auto industry is where some of the best battery engineers are.
We don’t blame all engineers every time a device fails. Likewise, we shouldn’t blame the whole law profession just because of these situations. Without lawyers, many more innocent people will be jailed.
Nope. As in no, you’re not the only one. Come on – how arrogant can you be? 😉
You’re not alone.
My take; Apple’s recent automotive-related hiring has everything to do with 1) improving and expanding CarPlay; 2) adding functionality to Maps app; 3) as Apple did with processors, Apple’s getting deeper into battery technology; 4) it has very little to do with developing a “whole widget” car.
Apple is not building a car. There is more to autos than just building them. Safety regulation, dealer networks, warranties etc.
Other things can benefit from improved battery tech.
The lawsuit: if they’re guilty of poaching, they should pay.
Very arrogant! I was just perplexed after reading 4-5 articles from various sources and neither mentioned that maybe Apple was just trying to build good batteries for their current lines.