Tesla CEO Elon Musk Slights Apple for iOS Quality, Claims It ‘Broke My Email System’

Elon Musk took a slight jab at Apple’s mobile operating system during a recent conference.

According to a new report from Business Insider, Elon Musk was answering a question about the importance of software as a differentiating factor in modern technology while on stage at the Satellite 2020 conference this week, when he went off on a brief tangent about Apple — and, specifically, his thoughts on the quality of recent iOS updates from the iPhone maker.

“What I was referring to is that technology does not automatically improve,” said the Tesla CEO. “People are used to the phone being better every year. I’m an iPhone user, but I think some of the recent software updates have like been not great, certainly feeding into that point. It, like, broke my email system…which is quite fundamental.”

Musk didn’t offer much else about his experience with the buggy software, but he did go on to stress the importance of constantly hiring fresh talent in the tech industry.

“We certainly need a lot more smart people to work in software,” Musk continued.

Although Musk didn’t specify which iOS software update he was referring to, it’s surely in references to issues were caused by iOS 13 — Apple’s latest mobile operating system shipped in a broken state and was full of various bugs on iPhone and iPad, including Mail app issues.

A former Apple software engineer has previously tried to put this issue into some context in a recent written commentary, explaining that part of the issue is Apple’s customer base (which is larger than it’s ever been) and Apple’s software is likewise more complex than ever.

The Cupertino company has since worked hard to resolve the issues, shipping 10 updates since its launch in September.

The full interview is below. You can watch the entire thing or just skip ahead to the 13:00 minute mark to hear Musk discuss his email issues.