Elon Musk wants to make Tesla technologies accessible to all manufacturers and confirms that this is now the case with Autopilot. The autonomous driving system may be used by other brands in the future.
If some manufacturers jealously guard their technologies for themselves, this is not really Tesla’s philosophy. For several years now, the American firm has been committed to sharing its innovations and to benefit as many people as possible. So much so that in 2014, Elon Musk published a blog post titled ” All Our Patent Are Belong To You” , either ” All our patents belong to you“.
A strong announcement
The businessman, who recently gave up his position as CEO of Twitter, has wanted for several years to make available to other manufacturers ” a common and rapidly evolving technology platform“. A strategy that may seem surprising, but that has many advantages for everyone, starting with the American firm, but not only, as we will see a little further down.
A few weeks ago, the manufacturer announced the signing of a partnership with Ford. The latter allows cars from the blue oval brand to be equipped with Tesla connectors and to be compatible with Superchargers. But Elon Musk wants to go even further, as he announces in a tweet. The latter explains that it is now the turn of the Autopilot and the FSD (full self-driving), fully autonomous driving, to be accessible to all.
Tesla aspires to be as helpful as possible to other car companies.
We made all our patents freely available several years ago.
Now, we are enabling other companies to use our Supercharger network.
Also happy to license Autopilot/FSD or other Tesla technology.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2023
This is nothing new, since a few days ago Elon Musk announced that he wanted Tesla to release the source code of his infotainment system freely to his competitors to help them design electric cars faster. .
All cars on Autopilot?
Thus, according to Elon Musk, all car manufacturers who wish to do so will be able to use this autonomous driving technology. A nice gift from the Texas-based firm whose Model Y continues to be a hit. This statement comes in response to a tweet relaying an article in which Mary Barra, boss of General Motors admits Tesla’s advance in the field of the electric car.
The businesswoman indeed admitted that the American group is late against the firm of Elon Musk, which would be much more advanced in terms of technologies, profitability, but also production costs. These could even fall further in the coming years. What worries Mary Barra, who believes that the situation is not expected to reverse before the next decade.
What advantages?
Indeed, the leader recalls that Tesla is the only brand to making profits on electric cars under $50,000. This is made difficult for the rest of the industry by the cost of batteries, which represent up to 40% of the total price of an electric vehicle, according to the boss of Renault. But then, how could the provision of patents by Elon Musk change the situation?
This initiative could allow manufacturers to achieve significant savings in research and development. Thus, the latter will not need to develop their own autonomous driving technologies. However, this precise point should not concern GM, which already has one of the best systems on the market with that of Ford. The American group could however take advantage of other patents to increase its profits.
But what does Tesla gain in this case? Because the manufacturer puts its patents available completely free of charge, so he does not directly earn money on it. Which may seem like an amazing strategy for the firm, which has just broken a new speed record. In fact, this way of doing things should allow the brand to stay one step ahead of its rivals, by offering them technology that is already a little dated.
However, it is possible that Tesla will charge for the adoption of Autopilot by other manufacturers. Elon Musk indeed uses the term ” licensing“, which is the right to exploit a good or a service, but without specifying whether this would be done with remuneration or not.
It remains to be seen whether the latter will be conquered, while the Autopilot is the subject of numerous criticisms and is under investigation by the American authorities. In any case, end customers should also benefit from this strategy, which will allow the brands that will use the patents to reduce the prices of their cars. A way to reach parity even faster with thermal models?
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