On January 30, Tesla CEO Musk recently said on social platforms that Tesla's FSD (fully autonomous driving function) will be opened to other car companies in the future.
Musk writes that for the difficulty of developing an FSD feature, it could take five years, or even longer, for any company to achieve this feature through R&D.
But Musk believes that Tesla will not file a patent lawsuit against those who use our technology in good faith, and that "patents will become useless when innovation is so fast." What really matters is the speed of innovation. ”
As early as last year, Musk had said that he was considering the possibility of opening up Tesla's FSD features. He said it would be cool if other automakers were granted and used Tesla's self-driving technology on new cars. But given the high cost of developing the system, Tesla will charge a fee.
Currently, Tesla charges owners who subscribe to FSDs $12,000 (64,000 yuan in China), while users in North America can subscribe on a monthly basis for a monthly fee of $199.
Musk has always believed that when FSD finally reaches its full potential, it will make driving safer than ever, and with open source software, which will contain more real data, further improving the security of the system.
In fact, this is not the first time Tesla has opened up patents, since 2014, the company has disclosed or licensed hundreds of patent projects. Last year, Tesla also opened its own supercharger stations in parts of Europe, allowing other brands of electric vehicles to quickly replenish energy.
Of course, Tesla's practice of disclosing patents may also have "utilitarianism". For example, to achieve marketing gimmicks, collect patent fees, or preemptively develop standard setters for new energy vehicles.
But whether subjective or objective, Tesla's approach has directly promoted the development of electric vehicles, and has also made latecomers take a lot of detours. This is also the reason why many people regard Tesla as a benchmark car company for new energy vehicles, and its CEO Musk as a pioneer in new energy vehicles.