A few days ago, we reported that
Telsa Motors CEO Elon Musk had hinted he would be opening up patents to the
Supercharger stations that charge their electric vehicles (EVs). This would
have made it more convenient for competitors to enter or expand the EV market,
reducing demand for traditional vehicles powered by gasoline. Today, Musk
formally announced that Tesla Motors were not just opening up the patents for
the Superchargers, but for all of the patents obtained by Tesla; over 200 in
all.
Musk released a blog entry on Tesla’s website entitled “All Our
Patent Are Belong To You” which doubles as a potential massive advance for
the EV market as well as the only good reference to that Zero Wing
meme in the last decade. In the blog, Musk vows that Tesla will not
sue anyone who uses their technology in good faith.
“When I started out with my first company, Zip2, I thought
patents were a good thing and worked hard to obtain them,” Musk wrote. “And
maybe they were good long ago, but too often these days they serve merely to
stifle progress, entrench the positions of giant corporations and enrich those
in the legal profession, rather than the actual inventors.”
There are some minor stipulations for companies who want to
use Tesla’s technology. Other auto manufacturers using Supercharger technology
must also charge customers for use of the charging stations up front, and
granting free access thereafter. It is hoped that other manufacturers will also
assume an open source stance, allowing the industry to evolve more quickly.
Aside from the free exchange of ideas with an open source
format, there are other benefits. Tesla is set to open a factory to produce
batteries for EVs. If more auto manufacturers utilized the batteries, they
could be produced at a lower cost per unit, driving down price. This would aid
in Tesla’s goal of creating an affordable EV in order to reach a wider range of
consumers.
Musk elaborated that while Tesla Motors originally sought
patents in order to protect themselves, they realized they were really just
limiting the competition in a field that they had hoped to expand, not
constrict.
“At Tesla, however, we felt compelled to create patents out
of concern that the big car companies would copy our technology and then use
their massive manufacturing, sales and marketing power to overwhelm Tesla,”
Musk elaborated. “We couldn’t have been more wrong. The unfortunate reality is the
opposite: electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn’t burn
hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent,
constituting an average of far less than 1% of their total vehicle sales.”
Musk lamented that most major auto manufacturers have EVs
that aren’t attractive to consumers due to their limited range, if they have
EVs at all. With 100 million new vehicles hitting the roads every year, Musk
believes there is plenty of room for everyone manufacturing EVs to thrive.
“Technology leadership is not defined by patents, which
history has repeatedly shown to be small protection indeed against a determined
competitor, but rather by the ability of a company to attract and motivate the
world’s most talented engineers. We believe that applying the open source
philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position
in this regard,” Musk concluded.
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