Elon Musk Calls The Apple Car An ‘Open Secret’

Is the possibility of Apple creating an electric car merely a pipe dream for consumers of the brand (or a nightmare for prospective competitors)? Not according to Elon Musk, who plainly stated that it’s an “open secret” that Apple is developing a vehicle.

The Tesla CEO made the comment during a recent interview with the BBC, adding (in reference to Apple’s electric car plans), “It’s pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it.”

Musk also made it clear that he did not feel threatened by the prospect of facing competition on electric car turf from the tech juggernaut, telling the outlet that Apple’s entry into the space “will expand the industry.”

“Tesla will still aspire to make the most compelling electric vehicles,” Musk went on to state, “and that would be our goal, while at the same time helping other companies to make electric cars as well.”

Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told USA Today that the company had “no comment” on Musk’s statement. The outlet points out that Apple CEO Tim Cook has — when asked about the prospect of his company expanding into automobile manufacturing — similarly remained mute on the subject.

Lack of statement from Apple aside, USA Today reports that the company recently registered a few domain names — such as apple.car and apple.auto — that would seem to support Musk’s perspective on the matter. The outlet additionally shares the existence of reports indicating that Apple has been in talks with a former military facility east of San Francisco, suggesting that such a property could make for a suitable facility at which to privately test cars.