Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and co-founder of PayPal, had done the unthinkable when he chose to make Tesla patents available to anyone who wants to use it in good faith. The whole thing is under an open source type agenda, and we're interested to see if other companies would be interested in what Musk has to offer.
Tesla has hundreds of approved patents, and several that are still pending approval. The majority of these patents are tied to electric-vehicle technology. Tesla has pioneered how electric cars should be made. The company has designed cars with batteries that charges faster than anything the competition has to offer and an increase battery pack safety.
All the cool stuff mentioned above will now be available to competitors, but whether or not they will bite is another story altogether.
"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," according to Tesla CEO, Elon Musk in a blog post.
It is in no doubt a great gesture from Elon Musk, and we wonder if other companies will follow his example to end patent battles and work together to make the world a better place.
Is there a bigger agenda for Elon Musk in this grand scheme? Chances are there is, but who cares when the man is making it easier for car manufacturers to create better electric cars that are better for the environment.
"We believe that Tesla, other companies making electric cars, and the world would all benefit from a common, rapidly-evolving technology platform," says Musk.
If this plan works out, we should eventually see electric cars all over the globe.
