Photo: theceomagazine.com
Some parts of the Internet are ablaze this Friday with fresh news about how Elon Musk "announced Thursday he had released all of the electric carmaker Tesla's patents, as part of an effort to fight climate change." Although the news in itself is true, it is also much older, hence by no means fresh.
Musk twitted on Thursday a link to one of his older Tesla blog posts. Titled All Our Patent Are Belong To You, the post is indeed all about how Tesla plans to change the world by sharing its ideas and patents with all those willing to chip in. The only problem is the post is dated June 12, 2014.
So no, Musk did not "just" release all of Tesla's patents in an attempt to fight climate change.
Back when the comments were originally made, Musk was facing quite a lot of opposition from established carmakers. He said back then that the "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.”
As a result, he decided to open the floogates and make all of Tesla's patents public for all those willing to use them in good faith. The reason?
“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."
It is very difficualt to say how all that played out, and whether Musk's decision had an influence on how things turned out. Today's reality is that electric cars are no longer of marginal interest for carmakers, but at the center of their expansion plans for the following decade.
In the press release section below, you’ll Musk full blog pos, as published in 2014.
So no, Musk did not "just" release all of Tesla's patents in an attempt to fight climate change.
Back when the comments were originally made, Musk was facing quite a lot of opposition from established carmakers. He said back then that the "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.”
As a result, he decided to open the floogates and make all of Tesla's patents public for all those willing to use them in good faith. The reason?
“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."
It is very difficualt to say how all that played out, and whether Musk's decision had an influence on how things turned out. Today's reality is that electric cars are no longer of marginal interest for carmakers, but at the center of their expansion plans for the following decade.
In the press release section below, you’ll Musk full blog pos, as published in 2014.
All our patent are belong to youhttps://t.co/HPK5R5UMS6 pic.twitter.com/t99riofeCI
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 31 ianuarie 2019
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