 Tesla is getting most of the attention in the electric car world, but here's a mysterious California company that keeps making big hires from BMW and even Tesla itself, and has quietly built a staff of over 400 people. I had a chance to tour Faraday Future's Southern California headquarters before they come out of stealth mode and to talk to the company's top engineer and designer. Nick Sampson is the senior vice president of Faraday Future and is one of the company's founders leading engineering. So the first discussion started 18 months ago. 18 months ago. We've got to have a car that perhaps can just turn up when you need it. You don't have to own it, you can just call it up on your phone or you can pre-book it or it will just know that you need it because you're scheduled to go somewhere. We wanted to not just be an automotive company, so we reached out into the aerospace industries, into medical device industries, into the internet and technology industries to pull together a group of people with a diverse range of skills. Nick so what do you bring to the equation as far as your background? You're an engineer by training. Engineer by training but also bring more than engineering. I also studied economics and business so I understand those sides of things. At Tesla for instance we did a completely different sales model rather than the traditional dealership model. We used a model where we sold via the internet, sold via stores, sold in places that people had more access to rather than the sort of rather remote. So is Faraday going to have a similar spirit as Tesla or how is it going to be different? It's going to be different in that we're creating an environment that's even more creative. Many people look at Tesla and think that they've done it differently to the traditional auto industry which they have but there's other ways even more different. Imagine the future and the environment you want to be in and the products and the world that you want to create and then work out how would I get to that place. If I go on a road trip now the weekend I have to plan that indoors on a computer and then I have to go to the car and re-put that in. I have to sort of mess about. It's not seamless. It's not a world where the car knows me, knows my needs. If I plan something on one device why shouldn't that be available on another device? If I plan my journey I should get in the car, the car should know my journey or should know some of the places I want to visit on the way because it knows my preferences or even suggests places. It might say well we're going on this journey to here would you like to stop at this restaurant? Rather than we have to even bother to go on and say can you find me a restaurant the car should begin to learn my desires, learn what I like, where I want to go or even not just me the owner or the user of the car it should be the other people that are with me. I can see a time we're envisioning a car that's much smarter than anything we've got today. If we went on a journey together it should know my music taste because it knows who I am and it's read my playlists and it should know who you are and the car should just say I'm going to start playing these tracks because I found a commonality there you both should like this genre of music. It should also know other things about everybody that's connected with the car. Will there be a car with a single owner or do you see it as more of a... No very much we see that yes there will be cars that still have single owners but in the future there will be a vast number of people who don't want to own a car anymore we might instead of owning a car it might be a subscription. Does that make you want to make something that could race that could have a performance element to it too? Well I guess I'm always going to have that desire. But when you start a company you can do that right? Like you can say why don't we try this? Yeah there's the opportunity to instead of it being a great thing to get a lot of people around in an efficient manner we just had that just for one person to go and have fun. So from an engineering point does that mean you start with one car and you build out from that or do you introduce ten different shapes and let people choose which one they want or how does that work? Our longer term vision is that we're going to have to develop a completely different range of vehicles for the future. And where's your company in that process? We're moving remarkably quickly we've already got a test vehicle out running testing electrical system here in California and we're already well through the design process for production we already are releasing data and information to start having parts made for real vehicles in the future. So it is an American car company that you're trying to? Yeah the company was founded here in California and we're going to be manufacturing in the USA. Thinking about you know really being in the West Coast now this is we have Apple that might be coming into the car world, Google, new companies that are really no longer traditional automotive companies so do you see those companies as like minded competitors? Not like minded competitors I just find them as like minded allies to me it's a great thing that some of those other companies are coming into the industry it's not a threat the more people that join the more the consumers will realize the opportunities that are available and the swing will accelerate. Richard Kim best known for leading the design on the BMW i3 and i8 is now the head of design for Faraday. It's about it's not really about designing a car it's more about designing a brand, designing from the ground up, clean sheet of paper. Sheet of paper but is that that's an old way of doing things right? Well literally and figuratively a clean sheet of paper. I mean and you come from personally working on you know such kind of design praised cars like i8, i3 do you draw from some of that knowledge or do you just start completely new? Yeah we're trying to kind of hit the reset button we're designing the car from the inside out and that's unique we do a lot in Oculus and augmented reality so it's a very unique org structure. Yeah so maybe you can talk about where you are in the design process is this an actual car here that we're next to? Yeah so this is one of the few prototypes we're working on we're working on multiple things at the same time and this is a model of something we did in this very new and unique process. It's very very digital oriented a lot of VR a lot of AR so this is the result. Less than a year. That's right. When you mentioned this this car it's a process that starts you said from the interior going out so it's not just a shell essentially it's got a lot of hard wiring in there. Yeah. What's the advantage to using to using AI and to using these sort of intuitive ways of designing does that allow you different materials to work with? So that process is giving us time we're doing things super fast third of the time that I'm used to and we're still doing it at a high quality whereas the old older ways first you do maybe a clay model and then you do a hard model and then you paint it and then you do an interior same process and then you kind of put them together and you're like oh wait I missed something with our process everything is checked immediately. It's not clear when Faraday will unveil its first product. I expect to hear more from Faraday Future in 2016. So by 2020 will we see your cars on the road? Absolutely.
 Tesla is getting most of the attention in the electric car world, but here's a mysterious
 California company that keeps making big hires from BMW and even Tesla itself, and has quietly
 built a staff of over 400 people.
 I had a chance to tour Faraday Future's Southern California headquarters before they come out
 of stealth mode and to talk to the company's top engineer and designer.
 Nick Sampson is the senior vice president of Faraday Future and is one of the company's
 founders leading engineering.
 So the first discussion started 18 months ago.
 18 months ago.
 We've got to have a car that perhaps can just turn up when you need it.
 You don't have to own it, you can just call it up on your phone or you can pre-book it
 or it will just know that you need it because you're scheduled to go somewhere.
 We wanted to not just be an automotive company, so we reached out into the aerospace industries,
 into medical device industries, into the internet and technology industries to pull together
 a group of people with a diverse range of skills.
 Nick so what do you bring to the equation as far as your background?
 You're an engineer by training.
 Engineer by training but also bring more than engineering.
 I also studied economics and business so I understand those sides of things.
 At Tesla for instance we did a completely different sales model rather than the traditional
 dealership model.
 We used a model where we sold via the internet, sold via stores, sold in places that people
 had more access to rather than the sort of rather remote.
 So is Faraday going to have a similar spirit as Tesla or how is it going to be different?
 It's going to be different in that we're creating an environment that's even more creative.
 Many people look at Tesla and think that they've done it differently to the traditional auto
 industry which they have but there's other ways even more different.
 Imagine the future and the environment you want to be in and the products and the world
 that you want to create and then work out how would I get to that place.
 If I go on a road trip now the weekend I have to plan that indoors on a computer and then
 I have to go to the car and re-put that in.
 I have to sort of mess about.
 It's not seamless.
 It's not a world where the car knows me, knows my needs.
 If I plan something on one device why shouldn't that be available on another device?
 If I plan my journey I should get in the car, the car should know my journey or should know
 some of the places I want to visit on the way because it knows my preferences or even
 suggests places.
 It might say well we're going on this journey to here would you like to stop at this restaurant?
 Rather than we have to even bother to go on and say can you find me a restaurant the car
 should begin to learn my desires, learn what I like, where I want to go or even not just
 me the owner or the user of the car it should be the other people that are with me.
 I can see a time we're envisioning a car that's much smarter than anything we've got today.
 If we went on a journey together it should know my music taste because it knows who I
 am and it's read my playlists and it should know who you are and the car should just say
 I'm going to start playing these tracks because I found a commonality there you both should
 like this genre of music.
 It should also know other things about everybody that's connected with the car.
 Will there be a car with a single owner or do you see it as more of a...
 No very much we see that yes there will be cars that still have single owners but in
 the future there will be a vast number of people who don't want to own a car anymore
 we might instead of owning a car it might be a subscription.
 Does that make you want to make something that could race that could have a performance
 element to it too?
 Well I guess I'm always going to have that desire.
 But when you start a company you can do that right?
 Like you can say why don't we try this?
 Yeah there's the opportunity to instead of it being a great thing to get a lot of people
 around in an efficient manner we just had that just for one person to go and have fun.
 So from an engineering point does that mean you start with one car and you build out from
 that or do you introduce ten different shapes and let people choose which one they want
 or how does that work?
 Our longer term vision is that we're going to have to develop a completely different
 range of vehicles for the future.
 And where's your company in that process?
 We're moving remarkably quickly we've already got a test vehicle out running testing electrical
 system here in California and we're already well through the design process for production
 we already are releasing data and information to start having parts made for real vehicles
 in the future.
 So it is an American car company that you're trying to?
 Yeah the company was founded here in California and we're going to be manufacturing in the
 USA.
 Thinking about you know really being in the West Coast now this is we have Apple that
 might be coming into the car world, Google, new companies that are really no longer traditional
 automotive companies so do you see those companies as like minded competitors?
 Not like minded competitors I just find them as like minded allies to me it's a great thing
 that some of those other companies are coming into the industry it's not a threat the more
 people that join the more the consumers will realize the opportunities that are available
 and the swing will accelerate.
 Richard Kim best known for leading the design on the BMW i3 and i8 is now the head of design
 for Faraday.
 It's about it's not really about designing a car it's more about designing a brand, designing
 from the ground up, clean sheet of paper.
 Sheet of paper but is that that's an old way of doing things right?
 Well literally and figuratively a clean sheet of paper.
 I mean and you come from personally working on you know such kind of design praised cars
 like i8, i3 do you draw from some of that knowledge or do you just start completely
 new?
 Yeah we're trying to kind of hit the reset button we're designing the car from the inside
 out and that's unique we do a lot in Oculus and augmented reality so it's a very unique
 org structure.
 Yeah so maybe you can talk about where you are in the design process is this an actual
 car here that we're next to?
 Yeah so this is one of the few prototypes we're working on we're working on multiple
 things at the same time and this is a model of something we did in this very new and unique
 process.
 It's very very digital oriented a lot of VR a lot of AR so this is the result.
 Less than a year.
 That's right.
 When you mentioned this this car it's a process that starts you said from the interior going
 out so it's not just a shell essentially it's got a lot of hard wiring in there.
 Yeah.
 What's the advantage to using to using AI and to using these sort of intuitive ways
 of designing does that allow you different materials to work with?
 So that process is giving us time we're doing things super fast third of the time that I'm
 used to and we're still doing it at a high quality whereas the old older ways first you
 do maybe a clay model and then you do a hard model and then you paint it and then you do
 an interior same process and then you kind of put them together and you're like oh wait
 I missed something with our process everything is checked immediately.
 It's not clear when Faraday will unveil its first product.
 I expect to hear more from Faraday Future in 2016.
 So by 2020 will we see your cars on the road?
 Absolutely.