Tesla - the "Linux" of automobiles

[pmaitra]

Tesla, the electric car maker from California, has pulled off a "Linux," by making their patents open source.

Quotes from their blog:

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.

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.

 

[Srinivas_K]

These guys are implementing a new kind of business model where they can attract big customer base. Just like email and social networking sites are free of cost but the service providers can generate huge amounts of money because of adds and all.

Nice step in Auto mobile sector.

 

[trackwhack]

Funny guy Mr Musk. Tesla has failed and he has moved his hopes on to SpaceX. That will also go bust soon what with cheaper delivery mechanisms from India and China. Mr. Musk has to hope that Paypal somehow survives, all his funding for his pet projects come from his revenue in Paypal. However with Facebook seeking licence for an online pay mechanism, the days of Paypal will also be numbered.

The fact is that Tesla was not making money, they had severe quality control issues with the few cars they sold. Now that he sees the end is near, what better way to garner goodwill than to making their patents open source. There are no revolutionary patents that Tesla holds. But dolts around the world sure will be impressed.

All that said, Elon Musk is an awesome innovator and a role model for anyone chasing their dreams. He never tires of new ideas and is probably the greatest risk taker since Jobs.

 

[Ray]

Musk has also conceptualised Hyperloop, incorporating reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on a cushion of air that is driven by a combination of linear induction motors and air compressors,

Artist's impression of a Hyperloop capsule: Air compressor on the front, passenger compartment in the middle, battery compartment at the back and air bearing skis at the bottom.

Wiki

Got to grant him credit that he is all the time thinking of new things.