Tesla makes a bold move
In a refreshing move, Elon Musk and his immensely popular electric car company, Tesla Motors, is open sourcing their valuable patent portfolio. Essentially, this means that any car maker or aspiring electrical mechanic can use Tesla developed technologies in just about any degree, as long as it is in good faith. This move opens up the doors for engineers to tinker with, improve upon, or implement any of Tesla’s hundreds of technological achievements into their own products, and Elon Musk is thinking it will lead to an even bigger win for Tesla and sustainable transportation down the road.
According to Musk, the patents were removed in the spirit of the open source movement, and with the hope that it will lead to the advancement of electric vehicle technology.
In the blog post, which was actually titled “All Our Patent Are Belong To You”, Musk said “Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others. we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal.”
Musk explained how Tesla initially filed its patents as a defensive mechanism against larger companies who may have attempted to take advantage of Tesla technology, but as that was not the case, he now see’s the advantage of providing his technologies to anyone who shares his goal. At the end of his post, Musk said “Technology leadership is not defined by patents…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 will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position in this regard.”
Tesla is one of the most advanced companies in the world, and providing their technology to anyone to use for the general advancement of the industry is a move that firmly cements Tesla as the head of the pack, the real leader in sustainable transport. Much like Apple at WWDC, they showed a new side today. Tesla showed that they are not simply a pretty car and some smart engineering, they’re an inspired company who is willing to open up their technology platform in order to reach the future.
