In an effort to make the world a cleaner place, Elon Musk has made Tesla patents public. In an effort to fight the climate change, Elon Musk has open sourced the patents for the anyone who wants to use it. While making an announcement in a blog post founder of Tesla added that they, “will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.”
It is an exceptional gesture in the era where companies usually defend every minor advancement in the technology within their boundary walls. Elon Musk said that along with an effort to save the world, they are also pushing for advancements in the electric vehicle technology. In the same spirit, he added, “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…”
Surprisingly, the announcement came just after the US prosecutors framed a Chinese national against charges of stealing Apple’s self-driving vehicle project. Elon Musk said he is doubtful for patents which only served giant corporations and lawyers to gain rather than inventors. He said these patents repress the progress or “stifle progress” in the field.
The recent announcement has allowed Tesla to gain notoriety among the general public. Even though, enthusiasts in the electric vehicle market and some environment savvy guys will surely appreciate the move by Tesla. While making an announcement, Musk again remembered the ethos of Tesla and 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 pressed on the fact that they will remain very strict against corporations which will use their patents, and then sell their products in the market at higher prices.
He even addressed the crisis that our world is going through. Musk said that other big companies are not working on clean fuel cars or electric vehicles. But they alone can’t even produce these many cars to compete for the never-ending demand. Even though, he added, “it is impossible for Tesla to build electric cars fast enough to address the carbon crisis.” Overall the idea behind the open-source philosophy is to make rapid advances in technology and match the demand.
“We believe that applying the open-source philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position,” and ability to attract talented engineers, he said. We hope other companies should also follow the same way to invent new technologies at a much faster pace.
(Source)
