Tesla Release All Of Their Patents - All Of Them

Zillah

This is Elon Musk:


If you haven't heard of him, you've certainly heard of what he has done. He co-founded PayPal, and thereby revolutionised how commerce on the internet works. He got bored of that, and sold his shares and went on to make another company.

That company is Space X. The first non-governmental space company that is so good they won the contract to supply the International Space Station. They do stuff like make rockets that can take off and land again, vertically:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxKWh7kLDzw
(no, that's not CGI, regardless of what your instincts might tell you)

He then decided he wanted to revolutionise another industry, and founded the Tesla electric car company. They made electric cars sexy, releasing the first electric sports car, and now make a few different models of absolutely beautiful electric cars.



When you buy one, you get free electricity from their top up stations, for life (none here yet, but a ton of them in US). To pull this off they developed a ton of new technology to make electric cars match and in some cases out-perform petrol cars.

They decided, however, that they were never going to fix the climate on their own, they can't make cars fast enough. So they've released their patents. Anyone, anywhere, is allowed to use Tesla technology to build electric cars, for free.

Announcement here:
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you

This guy is my hero. He's also a billionaire who went drinking in Coppers when he was over for a conference.

(sorry if this is a little long, the pictures would break it up a lot more if I could imbed them)

fergiesfolly

He's like an antithesis to Steve Jobs

nibtrix

The best review of a car ever - http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla_model_s

Also, Elon Musk agreed to help pay for the Tesla Museum...

wretcheddomain

His name sounds suspiciously like a brand of perfume. Next revolutionary area maybe?

TimeToShine

They hope that electric cars become standard - so they can lead the way.

A very nice gesture but don't think it's unmotivated by business.

Holsten

Cool, never knew about him.

What a man!

Sh1tbag OToole

Saw a tesla roadster in cork there a few weeks ago on the road to skibbereen. Fine piece of machine it was, shame they discontinued the roadster, the Model S is just too boring and civilised and luxurious for my liking.. not that i can afford either

Zillah

nibtrix wrote: »

The best review of a car ever - http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla_model_s

Oh man I had forgotten about this, it's amazing.
Awarded 5.4 out of 5 for safety. They broke the system.

TimeToShine wrote: »

They hope that electric cars become standard - so they can lead the way.

A very nice gesture but don't think it's unmotivated by business.

I'm sure they did some analysis and decided they would probably benefit from electric cars taking off generally, but still, what other company would take such a gamble? They have the market cornered, they've done things with electric cars no one else has gotten close too. Normal business practice would be to brutally throttle competition, even selling at a loss to drive competitors out of business for long-term gain. They're doing the opposite. They're trying to foster competition and spark the industry for long term gain for all concerned.

I struggle to be even a little bit cynical about it.

RustyNut

Hmm an open source car and a 3d printer. I wonder.......:pac:

caustic 1

Nice teeth.

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.

It's really interesting to see this development: opening things up to the market really does benefit people, not patents.

PizzamanIRL

He has 7 wrinkles around his right eye.

caustic 1

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

He has 7 wrinkles around his right eye.

Anti-aging cream should be his next venture.

Mr. Incognito

A wonderful gesture.

Kudos to him

Lou.m

Zillah wrote: »

This is Elon Musk:


If you haven't heard of him, you've certainly heard of what he has done. He co-founded PayPal, and thereby revolutionised how commerce on the internet works. He got bored of that, and sold his shares and went on to make another company.

That company is Space X. The first non-governmental space company that is so good they won the contract to supply the International Space Station. They do stuff like make rockets that can take off and land again, vertically:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxKWh7kLDzw
(no, that's not CGI, regardless of what your instincts might tell you)

He then decided he wanted to revolutionise another industry, and founded the Tesla electric car company. They made electric cars sexy, releasing the first electric sports car, and now make a few different models of absolutely beautiful electric cars.



When you buy one, you get free electricity from their top up stations, for life (none here yet, but a ton of them in US). To pull this off they developed a ton of new technology to make electric cars match and in some cases out-perform petrol cars.

They decided, however, that they were never going to fix the climate on their own, they can't make cars fast enough. So they've released their patents. Anyone, anywhere, is allowed to use Tesla technology to build electric cars, for free.

Announcement here:
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you

This guy is my hero. He's also a billionaire who went drinking in Coppers when he was over for a conference.

(sorry if this is a little long, the pictures would break it up a lot more if I could imbed them)

I know I read this it's AMAZING! HE IS AMAZING!

Lou.m

Tesla himself was a humanist in the same vain ..he would have surely approved!

Soups123

Ok so he doesn't run a mental hospital and hasn't released all it's patients.

I need to read titles more carefully!

Jimoslimos

Nice enough gesture but I don't think there's anything particularly ground-breaking in those patents anyway. It's basically a load of lithium-ion batteries (like you'd get in a laptop) hooked up to a powertrain to drive the wheels.

Obviously Tesla would prefer electric car development would stay along those lines (with better battery tech) rather than say hydrogen fuel cells.

EyeSight

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Nice enough gesture but I don't think there's anything particularly ground-breaking in those patents anyway. It's basically a load of lithium-ion batteries (like you'd get in a laptop) hooked up to a powertrain to drive the wheels.

Obviously Tesla would prefer electric car development would stay along those lines (with better battery tech) rather than say hydrogen fuel cells.

Maybe not but now other companies can use the same technology. They don't need to find a different way to do the same thing, spend years designing, building and testing. It's all done and ready for them to use

YFlyer

Soups123 wrote: »

Ok so he doesn't run a mental hospital and hasn't released all it's patients.

I need to read titles more carefully!

During a full moon.

whirlpool

Rockets taking off vertically? Um... don't all rockets do that?

Jimoslimos

whirlpool wrote: »

Rockets taking off vertically? Um... don't all rockets do that?

Did you watch the landing as well?

ScumLord

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Nice enough gesture but I don't think there's anything particularly ground-breaking in those patents anyway. It's basically a load of lithium-ion batteries (like you'd get in a laptop) hooked up to a powertrain to drive the wheels.

They did have a secret method for charging and using the batteries, they reckoned they could get ten years out of the battery pack which is pretty incredible.

RobertKK

Elon Musk is the man that replaced Steve Jobs in the hero worship category. They love him on the business news channels.

Tesla had a phenomenal year - its share price went from $30 to $264 a share, now just over $200 a share.
The $5 billion gigafactory will produce the batteries needed for the cars and maybe even home storage of electricity. Musk is also the chairman of Solar City a solar power company, and they tested using solar power and storing the excess power in batteries and using that instead of power from the grid.

Tesla cars are expensive, the cheaper models in the future will be the driving force (pardon the pun) for Tesla, they will be like apple in the phone market.

anncoates

Are they just testing out theories?

brandon_flowers

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

He has 7 wrinkles around his right eye.

A face Musk every night would clear that up in no time.

*leaves coat behind in hurry

wes

Wow, very rare for a company to release patents like, and it will hopefully spur innovation with electric cars.

SEPT 23 1989

Wheres the catch? there is always a catch

ScumLord

anncoates wrote: »

Are they just testing out theories?

How do you mean? The companies are all growing concerns, the electric car patents all work and the cars are on sale in the US.


I suppose it could be a savy marketing move. It's often said that a patent cost as much as you're willing to spend defending it. Maybe they knew they'd be at the mercy of patent challenges from bigger companies and decided to avoid all that while looking like heroes. Although I'd say the bigger manufacturers are probably too far down their own development paths to start again with tesla's technology.

It could be a serious boost to smaller producers though.

brandon_flowers

Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana as Bill Gates once said. But only in a high tech, large scale fast selling industry.

Probable catch is that Tesla has a whole batch of new patents ready for submission, they do employ the best and most innovative people and the most innovative engineers are better than any patents. If you are constantly improving on your old stuff then those patents are worthless.

Patents are valuable in things like huge turnkey designs like a floating oil rig or a TGV which takes years to design and a good patent is worth defending. For mass production they are almost worthless, even Samsung weren't penalized financially overall in the case taken by Apple. They made far more profit from what they sold than the $120m fine would cover.

Akrasia

Elon Musk is an absolute legend.

He's basically Tony Stark and I'm 100% convinced he has his own fully functioning Iron Man suit somewhere in development

--LOS--

He's awesome, fair play to him

oppenheimer1

ScumLord wrote: »

How do you mean? The companies are all growing concerns, the electric car patents all work and the cars are on sale in the US.


I suppose it could be a savy marketing move. It's often said that a patent cost as much as you're willing to spend defending it. Maybe they knew they'd be at the mercy of patent challenges from bigger companies and decided to avoid all that while looking like heroes. Although I'd say the bigger manufacturers are probably too far down their own development paths to start again with tesla's technology.

It could be a serious boost to smaller producers though.

I one think this is as altruistic as some are making it out to be. By Tesla giving away it's patents it's obviously hoping to move other manufacturers down the line it has taken. Tesla well essentially have written the standards for the electric car. By getting everyone to follow their path it could kill research in other technologies which could be better than the solution they've developed.

With more manufacturers in the game, they're obviously hoping this move will help other manufacturers get to production more quickly and create their market. Tells alone won't take the electric car mainstream. They need the likes of Toyota GM Ford Volkswagen to do that for them.

ScumLord

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

I one think this is as altruistic as some are making it out to be. By Tesla giving away it's patents it's obviously hoping to move other manufacturers down the line it has taken. Tesla well essentially have written the standards for the electric car. By getting everyone to follow their path it could kill research in other technologies which could be better than the solution they've developed.

With more manufacturers in the game, they're obviously hoping this move will help other manufacturers get to production more quickly and create their market. Tells alone won't take the electric car mainstream. They need the likes of Toyota GM Ford Volkswagen to do that for them.

I think Tesla's major advances have been in the way they utilize the batteries, (Mercedes arguably have made a technically superior car in the electric sls, although you'll pay supercar money for it) so maybe other manufacturers will take that technology and start putting out electric cars but I doubt it. Every manufacture has an electric car at this stage, it's not they don't know how to do it, in many cases they can even do it cheaper than tesla.

The big manufacturers are tentative because they don't want to produce a car people won't buy. For the average person buying a new car, they want something reliable, easy to use and affordable. Even though there are currently electric cars on the market that tick all those boxes people will see buying one of these cars as a risk for now. Electric cars are really only suitable for city driving (although tesla's model S has range comparable to a standard saloon).

Tesla is breaking the market with their car, I fully expected them to create the demand but what they've done isn't really a great business plan, in the traditional sense at least. They could have continued as they are holding onto their patents for batteries and if their battery proved successful they could have leased the technology or even just sold the battery units to other manufacturers as we see with engines today. Ford, Volvo, Citroen, renault all share engines, they make patent parts for each other and sell their technology to cover their research costs.

Tesla can't do that now, they have handed over all their patents to the market which means nobody needs to go to them. Financially what they did makes no sense, but it's a great thing to do for planet earth.

Zillah

When asked in an interview what big project he wanted to do next, Elon said he wouldn't have the time to do it any time soon, but that he'd like to make an electric jet that was supersonic and had VTOL capability.

A Concorde jet that doesn't need fuel that can take off and land like a helicopter?

This guy.

kylith

Zillah wrote: »

When asked in an interview what big project he wanted to do next, Elon said he wouldn't have the time to do it any time soon, but that he'd like to make an electric jet that was supersonic and had VTOL capability.

A Concorde jet that doesn't need fuel that can take off and land like a helicopter?

This guy.

I'm starting to think he's the reincarnation of Tesla.

Maximus Alexander

I genuinely think Elon Musk is exactly what he appears to be - a philanthropist who wants to use his wealth to invest in humanity's future.

The One Who Knocks

Akrasia wrote: »

Elon Musk is an absolute legend.

He's basically Tony Stark and I'm 100% convinced he has his own fully functioning Iron Man suit somewhere in development

If you take "Tony Stark" rearrange a few letters, remove some and then add a few more, you get "Elon Musk" :eek:

Coincidence? I think not.

KTRIC

The One Who Knocks wrote: »

If you take "Tony Stark" rearrange a few letters, remove some and then add a few more, you get "Elon Musk" :eek:

Coincidence? I think not.

MIND

BLOWN !!!! :eek:

MayoForSam

Not to mention that Elon Musk has also come up with the Hyperloop, an alternative form of public transport that could be a combination of high speed air and train travel without the drawbacks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperloop

Got to admit, I have some serious man-love for Musk and his company.

Unlike Tony Stark, he does not appear to have any serious links to the military-industrial complex e.g. not developing super-soldier suits or unmanned drones for firing missiles at civilians. Perhaps he really is one of the good guys.

Grayson

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

I genuinely think Elon Musk is exactly what he appears to be - a philanthropist who wants to use his wealth to invest in humanity's future.

Him and Pierre Omidyar. Omidyar sinks his money into stuff like free press and freedom of information initiatives.

(Although the rockets and electric sports cars are far cooler )

Zillah

MayoForSam wrote: »

Not to mention that Elon Musk has also come up with the Hyperloop, an alternative form of public transport that could be a combination of high speed air and train travel without the drawbacks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperloop

Got to admit, I have some serious man-love for Musk and his company.

Unlike Tony Stark, he does not appear to have any serious links to the military-industrial complex e.g. not developing super-soldier suits or unmanned drones for firing missiles at civilians. Perhaps he really is one of the good guys.

You just wait for when the volcano fortress cracks open and he unleashes a flying, solar-powered battle barge.

WilyCoyote

It is not Rocket Science. Kudos to the guy but I don't see many other innovators copying his big gesture to the planet.

EyeSight

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

I one think this is as altruistic as some are making it out to be. By Tesla giving away it's patents it's obviously hoping to move other manufacturers down the line it has taken. Tesla well essentially have written the standards for the electric car. By getting everyone to follow their path it could kill research in other technologies which could be better than the solution they've developed.

I think you're trying to hard to find a negative. They're not forcing manufacturers to use it but giving them a choice.
Anyone who uses them can research into improving them or still research into their own tech. That's how technology works. You use something now but spend your time figuring out needs improving and then improve on it

Fox_In_Socks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#mediaviewer/File:The_Summit_2013.jpg

I know that Musk inspires the OP.

But who really inspires Musk?

Little CuChulainn

It's a sound business plan. Wait til you're close to a new breakthrough. Release all old patents causing the market to expand. Dominate larger market with new designs. The electric car isn't exactly a major industry yet but the release of all those designs will likely result in more suppliers, more customers and a bigger national infrastructure.

Maximus Alexander

Fox_In_Socks wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#mediaviewer/File:The_Summit_2013.jpg

I know that Musk inspires the OP.

But who really inspires Musk?

I love that he dresses just like me. Me and Elon, we're tight.

Zillah

Little CuChulainn wrote: »

It's a sound business plan. Wait til you're close to a new breakthrough. Release all old patents causing the market to expand. Dominate larger market with new designs. The electric car isn't exactly a major industry yet but the release of all those designs will likely result in more suppliers, more customers and a bigger national infrastructure.

That's why companies declaring that others may use their patents for free is such a common occurrence? Some people will try to imagine a negative in any scenario.

Phoebas

Akrasia wrote: »

Elon Musk is an absolute legend.

He's basically Tony Stark and I'm 100% convinced he has his own fully functioning Iron Man suit somewhere in development

http://visual.ly/elon-musk-real-life-tony-stark

Little CuChulainn

Zillah wrote: »

That's why companies declaring that others may use their patents for free is such a common occurrence? Some people will try to imagine a negative in any scenario.

What makes you think I am being negative?