News that a fresh tech startup is trying to change the fabric of the industry hardly makes a ripple anymore. Everyone has ideas and there are now more ways than ever to help fund these awesome or weird or novel ideas. However, there is one very new and very mysterious startup that has everyone talking.
Faraday is a startup that has lofty plans for the automotive industry. In its site, the company says, "Beyond traditional electric vehicles, we are also developing other aspects of the automotive and technology industries, including unique ownership models, in-vehicle content and autonomous driving."
The company is also looking straight at Elon Musk's Tesla when it says it wants to develop an autonomous electric car. In fact, they claimed that their first vehicle, slated for a 2017 debut, will have a 15% more range than the current Tesla Model S, The Next Web reported.
Faraday also has some serious capital to work with. A recent blog post revealed company plans to spend $1 billion to develop a manufacturing plant either in California, Nevada, Georgia, or Louisiana. At the moment, Faraday is based in California in Nissan's ex-research facility.
The secretive company, however, could not provide a straight answer regarding some key details. For instance, the Wall Street Journal pressed Faraday about where their massive funding came from. The company has only one spokesperson, SVP Nick Sampson, a former director of vehicle and chassis engineering at Tesla, and he answered with an ambiguous "we are keeping our partners confidential."
Faraday's top dogs are also shrouded in mystery. For one, their CEO is currently unnamed but there surely is one such character. Many have postulated that it must be a "former" Apple executive.
One other detail is that Faraday seems to be snatching up all of Tesla's former employees. To tie it all in, perhaps the biggest evidence linking Faraday to Apple comes from Elon Musk himself. He said to German newspaper Handelsblatt of Apple, "They have hired people we've fired. We always jokingly call Apple the 'Tesla Graveyard'. If you don't make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I'm not kidding."
For now, Faraday's connection to Apple is nothing more than a rumor. But if turns out to be true, then let this serve as Apple's unofficial welcome to the automotive world.
