Another Elon Musk Tesla moment - gives away patents.

[WolfeMacleod]

Somebody bonk this guy on the head or something?
More people need to follow him, IMO.

Now THAT is worthy of the Tesla name!


All Our Patent Are Belong To You | Blog | Tesla Motors

June 12, 2014
All Our Patent Are Belong To You
By Elon Musk, CEO
TAGS: Customers / Model S /
246 comments

Yesterday, there was a wall of Tesla patents in the lobby of our Palo Alto headquarters. That is no longer the case. They have been removed, in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology.

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. Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.

When I started out with my first company, Zip2, I thought patents were a good thing and worked hard to obtain them. 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. After Zip2, when I realized that receiving a patent really just meant that you bought a lottery ticket to a lawsuit, I avoided them whenever possible.

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. 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.

At best, the large automakers are producing electric cars with limited range in limited volume. Some produce no zero emission cars at all.

Given that annual new vehicle production is approaching 100 million per year and the global fleet is approximately 2 billion cars, it is impossible for Tesla to build electric cars fast enough to address the carbon crisis. By the same token, it means the market is enormous. Our true competition is not the small trickle of non-Tesla electric cars being produced, but rather the enormous flood of gasoline cars pouring out of the world’s factories every day.

We believe that Tesla, other companies making electric cars, and the world would all benefit from a common, rapidly-evolving technology platform.

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.

[onewhippedpuppy]

The man knows how to keep himself in the news, that's for sure. I don't know of anything that's revolutionary about their cars, and there sure isn't a rush of companies trying to build expensive and limited range electric cars. I think he's pretty safe.

[Robert Adams]

Goooooooooo Elon!

I would say things are sure far from dull at Tesla. While the patent thing is going on we've been having some drama here in NJ, which effectively shut Tesla out of the market.
Looks like the crazy's in Trenton are having second thoughts, but time will tell.

New Jersey Legislature Reconsidering Tesla Direct Sales Today | CleanTechnica

[Tervuren]

"We can't possibly use tons of energy to manufacture cars to offset the use of energy from running cars makes in carbon to"



Uh...well, guess I can't argue with that.

[wildthing]

I'm still waiting for the hydrogen fill up stations along I-5...

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

... I don't know of anything that's revolutionary about their cars, and there sure isn't a rush of companies trying to build expensive and limited range electric cars. I think he's pretty safe.

Sooooo much Tesla, EV, and PHEV hate here. I had forgotten. I think you should read up on what patents Telsa holds, because some are revolutionary, some would be applicable to "normal" auto manufacturing, and many are for inexpensive longer range electric cars.

BTW, Tesla has sold more "expensive limited range electric cars" than any other gas or diesel powered car in that same class. More Model S sedans were sold than Mercedes-Benz sold S-class, more than BMW sold 7-series, more than Audi sold A8s, etc.

Pelicans really need to drop the politics and open their minds

[stealthn]

It's a good start but the real reason behind it is so other opportunists will build charging stations throughout the US and Canada, Tesla can't afford to do it all themselves.

Opening up the patents is a hope to creating a standard charging system/delivery method, if all cars are standard it benefits all manufacturers.

[RF5BPilot]

Nothing wrong with trying to encourage a healthy market for your product. I'm not sure what a critical mass would look like for EV's, but increased demand will benefit a variety of qualities of the supply line. Seems like a good move....and one that was probably discussed ad nauseum.

[Gogar]

I'm sort of shocked that the prevailing news story is:

"Tesla ditches its patents."

Tesla still holds the patents on all their technology.

They (for now), have "promised not to sue." That's different.

[aschen]

Originally Posted by kaisen

Sooooo much Tesla, EV, and PHEV hate here. I had forgotten. I think you should read up on what patents Telsa holds, because some are revolutionary, some would be applicable to "normal" auto manufacturing, and many are for inexpensive longer range electric cars.

BTW, Tesla has sold more "expensive limited range electric cars" than any other gas or diesel powered car in that same class. More Model S sedans were sold than Mercedes-Benz sold S-class, more than BMW sold 7-series, more than Audi sold A8s, etc.

Pelicans really need to drop the politics and open their minds

I think the model S is a perfectly fine vehicle, pretty cool actually. I think it is well executed and implemented.

However I agree that the underlying technology is conventional. I doubt that there is much value in the IP, and I certainly doubt any car manufacture will do spend much money based on this promise.

also the volt is more impressive to me but lacks the snob factor. No good dead goes unpunished for GM.

[silverc4s]

Open and free interchange of patents was a key element in the growth of the semiconductor industry in its infancy.
If you are a student of that history, you understand that it helped technology advance, to no individual or corporations great benefit overall.

[Cajundaddy]

I really like Elon's fresh perspective. He is a shrewd businessman and yet understands that progress happens fastest when you break out of well established molds and outdated thought processes. I am not ready to buy a Tesla yet but I think the car has promise and is moving rapidly towards solving the energy storage problem which is the primary limitation with electric transportation. I also have a few friends at Space-X, another highly innovative Musk-owned tech company that is changing the game forever.

Go get em Elon!

[Z-man]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

I don't know of anything that's revolutionary about their cars....

Except that they built the first performance-oriented electric car for consumers. Oh yeah - and the first luxury oriented electric car for consumers.

The technology in their cars may not necessarily be revolutionary, but the application is. You don't have to change the shape of a wheel to introduce a revolutionary concept like steel belted radial tires or run-flats.

In my opinion, they are ahead of the curve when it comes to electric propulsion applications for the consumer market. Perhaps they are too far ahead of the curve and that puts them at a disadvantage.

-Z

[Gogar]

I think they're great cars. I'm not in the market for a short-range second car at $80K but I would totally consider it if my situation were so.

[rusnak]

Originally Posted by stealthn

It's a good start but the real reason behind it is so other opportunists will build charging stations throughout the US and Canada, Tesla can't afford to do it all themselves.

Opening up the patents is a hope to creating a standard charging system/delivery method, if all cars are standard it benefits all manufacturers.

That's exactly what I was thinking. If you read the article, you understand that every other manufacturer has chosen not to be solely reliant on AC power. Or put another way, only Tesla has gone on this Quixotic mission that they call "zero hydrocarbon" emissions, which is also a misnomer since the source of the energy that they are using in not exactly 100% clean. Even unicorn farts would emit CO2. It would be far better as a business plan, to pursue hybrid technology, which is exactly what every other manufacturer is doing.

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by rusnak

That's exactly what I was thinking. If you read the article, you understand that every other manufacturer has chosen not to be solely reliant on AC power. Or put another way, only Tesla has gone on this Quixotic mission that they call "zero hydrocarbon" emissions, which is also a misnomer since the source of the energy that they are using in not exactly 100% clean. Even unicorn farts would emit CO2. It would be far better as a business plan, to pursue hybrid technology, which is exactly what every other manufacturer is doing.

Their political BS is marketing, if the owner really believed it - he'd not be up to the diff stuff he does.

It irks me to see a great product with the political BS attached. I haven't really seen much of it from Tesla, so the OP's article came out of left field for me.

[Lapkritis]

Did I miss something and we have hydrogen distribution capacity/infrastructure on the scale of electric utilities?

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by Lapkritis

Did I miss something and we have hydrogen distribution capacity/infrastructure on the scale of electric utilities?

No, not yet. But with the announcements by Toyota and others in the recent weeks there is a lot more cash on the table for infrastructure now.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=215394972384509175867.0004da7b8ad896f04c443&dg=feature

Toyota Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles to be Available in 2016 : Business : Headlines & Global News

Hyundai Tuscon Fuel Cell hits Californian roads with free hydrogen

http://www.autonews.com/article/20140520/OEM05/140529984/toyota-moving-away-from-evs-in-favor-of-hydrogen-fuel-cells

Japanese Government Bets The Farm On Fuel Cell Vehicles

EV was a nice idea and all, but a five min refuel, and longer ranges with more convenience will be the end of them.

[kaisen]

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles (HFCV) are still electric cars! They simply use hydrogen to generate electricity, rather than storing electricity in a conventional battery. You're either storing hydrogen or storing electricity. So if hydrogen is the next big thing, the automakers that are getting the EV part right in the interim are poised to benefit the most. They are still propelled by electric motors.

GM and Honda are leaps and bounds further ahead in hydrogen technology than the others

[Ferraripete]

Originally Posted by kaisen

Sooooo much Tesla, EV, and PHEV hate here. I had forgotten. I think you should read up on what patents Telsa holds, because some are revolutionary, some would be applicable to "normal" auto manufacturing, and many are for inexpensive longer range electric cars.

BTW, Tesla has sold more "expensive limited range electric cars" than any other gas or diesel powered car in that same class. More Model S sedans were sold than Mercedes-Benz sold S-class, more than BMW sold 7-series, more than Audi sold A8s, etc.

Pelicans really need to drop the politics and open their minds

kai,

I just don't get it...why the hate?? are we not all car guys?

pcb