Apple Cofounder Says Tesla, Not Apple, Will Make the Next Great Innovation

The future will probably be born in Silicon Valley. But the next greatest innovation in technology will likely be from Elon Musk’s Tesla, not Apple, at least according to Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak.

When asked who in Silicon Valley — or beyond — will likely make the next moonshot innovation, Wozniak didn’t go with the company that he co-founded. “I think Tesla is on the best direction right now. They’ve put an awful lot of effort into very risky things,” Wozniak told Bloomberg Canada in a recent interview. “I’m going to bet on Tesla.” Earlier in the interview, Wozniak pointed out that self-driving cars and transportation technology will likely be the next “moonshots” in tech — areas that Musk and the Palo Alto-based Tesla place particular focus.

The Apple founder also contended that true innovation typically comes from young people — not big business — who aren’t necessarily aware that their ideas might be risky, offering Facebook, Google and Tesla as examples. Wozniak went on to add that the best products spring from an individual’s own wants and hobbies, using Tesla’s Model S as an example, which he said didn’t make much sense in engineering terms. “It was really built for Elon’s own life. What car would he like? And when things come from yourself, knowing what you’d like very much and being in control of it … that’s when you get the best products.”

This, of course, parallels Wozniak’s early endeavors with Apple — computers were his own passion. Wozniak is best known for founding Apple Computers in 1976 alongside Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne, and for being the technical genius behind the company’s earliest tech and innovation. In fact, Wozniak single-handedly designed and built the Apple I computer kits that launched what is now the world’s largest company. This makes his recent comments all the most intriguing, especially considering that Wozniak still owns a sizable amount of stock in Apple.

Apple is on track to be the world’s first trillion dollar company, and the company is still innovating in fields such as artificial intelligence and sustainability. But whether the next big thing will come out of Cupertino or Palo Alto remains to be seen.