With a call that will perhaps be the last .. Mask criticizes “Apple” for these reasons!

Tesla CEO Elon Musk exposed his neighbor in Silicon Valley to Apple twice on a conference call to discuss Tesla’s earnings on Monday.

While the companies aren’t in direct competition today, Apple is looking to build its own self-driving electric car under the name of a project called Titan, and this has attracted a number of Tesla engineers and CEOs.

Project Titan is also rumored to be led by Doug Field, who returned to Apple in 2018 after five years at Tesla.

When Musk was asked about Tesla’s supply chain, he said there is a misconception that Tesla uses a lot of cobalt, which is an essential material in the production of lithium-ion cells that are used in both smartphones and electric cars, according to CNBC. . report”.

“I think Apple uses almost 100% cobalt in its batteries, cellphones, and laptops, but Tesla doesn’t use cobalt in its iron and phosphate packaging, and uses almost no substance in chemicals. nickel base, ”Musk said. “On a weighted average basis, we could use 2% cobalt versus around 100% at Apple, however, that is not a factor,” he added.

It comes as some of the cobalt mined in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been linked to human rights violations such as child labor.

In 2019, Apple, Tesla and other big tech companies were named as accused in a human rights lawsuit, according to British newspaper The Guardian.

In a conflict minerals report released earlier this year, Apple said it publishes a list of all conflict minerals and cobalt smelters and refineries, and that all of Apple’s cobalt suppliers have participated in the audits. in 2020.

Later in the appeal, Musk broke up about Apple’s so-called “walled garden”, named because Apple strictly controls the software that can be installed on iPhones through its App Store. Apple’s app store comes under close scrutiny from lawmakers and other companies, including in antitrust administration earlier this year after Epic Games sued it sue for the fees and policies of the App Store.

“I think we want to stress that our goal is to support the emergence of sustainable energy,” Musk said in response to a question about allowing competitors to use his charging network. “It’s not about creating a walled garden and using it to eliminate our competition that some companies use,” he added.

Then Musk pretended to cough and said, “Apple.”

During the call, Musk said he likely won’t appear in future Tesla earnings calls unless he has “something big” to say.