Hey, tampering with your car and getting it bought back as a lemon is so much easier than admitting you bought a car you didn't want.Originally Posted by Random
Hey, tampering with your car and getting it bought back as a lemon is so much easier than admitting you bought a car you didn't want.
Tesla open-sources all its patents
In the statement, Musk also philosophizes about patents in general. When he was younger, he thought they were valuable to protect a business. Today, "they serve merely to stifle progress, entrench the positions of giant corporations and enrich those in the legal profession, rather than the actual inventors." Even his company SpaceX avoids patents, reportedly to protect its ideas. Scroll down to read the entire impassioned announcement, titled All Our Patents Are Belong to You.Bravo!!!
No way Apple's gonna hire Elon Musk as the CEO and buy Tesla as the next new iCar and SpaceX as the iRocket now.
Lawyers must not like Elon very much. Imagine if Apple and Google opened up like this..., I guess if you're in the lead and you know that you'll stay in the lead, it probably doesn't make too much sense worrying about others infringing upon your patents. Might as well utilize and focus all your resources to continue to stay in the lead.
Bravo, Mr. Musk!
Wasn't that the whole point of buying (and then unloading) Motorola?
acket.
I think Google was primarily interested only in Motorola's patents, right? What would be the point for Apple to get Tesla's or SpaceX's patents? Further, even if they do find those patents attractive, why would you hire a CEO who'd end up open source everything in your company? Apple traditionally hasn't been a very open sourcy company. Can't even open its devices up to change out the battery! Do you get my point that although I think Apple needs leadership like Musk, but their philosophies are just too contradicting?
Personally, I think Elon Musk is pretty awesome both with his philosophy and what he has managed to accomplished..., hope his companies will continue to innovate and change the world for the better.
Tough to say what a company like Google is really up to. Obviously there is "Do no evil" but these days that seems to be more hype than promise. Personally, my belief is that Google and, say, Apple are probably equally evil, but because they have such incredibly different revenue models Google can do more things that appear less evil than Apple. Nobody pays Google anything, they make all their money from consumers passively. Nobody writes a check to Google. it makes very good sense for them to invent or buy a bunch of great technology and then give it away. The more people who use their stuff the more money they make.
Tesla doesn't really have the same position. They're selling a product. Sure, if more people make battery powered cars the technology will get better and cheaper faster, but that isn't a sole benefit to Tesla the same way more people using Android is a sole benefit to Google. I think Musk's move demonstrates not only a commitment to the technology (and maybe thus the planet) but also a confidence in his ability to meet his goals even when his company has no secret sauce. That's neat. Of course, maybe Tesla doesn't have any patents worth having and they just gave away a bunch of crap... time will tell.
I'm inclined to believe that Musk is more of a Warren Buffet or, heh, Nikola Tesla than a Steve Jobs, though, just based on his actions. He strikes me as a guy who is more interested in doing neat stuff than being king of the world.
If we have to find a selfish motive for Musk, it could be that he wants to set the 'standard' for all future EVs. If that standard is set, people will be buying his batteries and his hardware/software... and against competitors who build their own, he will still be able to sell these things cheaper than others because he is way more ahead of the game than other people. Of course, if the Chinese get a hold of his tech... with factories that don't have to worry about any sort of environmental restrictions, perhaps eventually the Chinese will be able to build more affordable Tesla like cars. Actually for a nation who doesn't really respect intellectual property anyway, suing them for patent infringement can only be a waste of time and resources anyway... so perhaps it'd be more productive for Tesla to continue work on next generation of EVs.
Anyway, yeah, considering Musk is offering free charges to his customers and now giving away patents... he is acting more and more like Tesla. However, based on past history, Tesla was not rewarded appropriately though and still eventually crushed by bankers. Anyway, Musk is probably no Tesla in terms of intellect, but at least he doesn't have to rely on any evil bankers to finance his projects. So maybe he won't suffer the same fate as Tesla.
The only thing I don't like about Musk so far is that his marriages suffered because of his ventures. For sure he doesn't have enough time for his wives and kids, but perhaps that's the price to be paid for having to awesome companies that many predict would have failed long ago... I really hope he'll continue on with his vision and continue to have success. I also hope I can work for him someday... whether rockets or cars, doesn't matter! I love both!
But that's exactly it - if he is giving away his patents, then people won't need to buy his batteries and chargers. Anyone will be free to not only use the technology he's made thus far, but also brand it as their own and potentially improve it. I think that speaks volumes about his confidence in his engineering and his approach to engineering in general - it's statement to the effect of, "I think this is the best it can be and you're going to want to use it, but if you can improve upon it we'll all benefit so go ahead." That is a refreshing approach, reminiscent of Google in the early days.
Yeah, his home life is a disaster, but the dude is a bazillionaire and a rockstar technologist and now an EV benefactor. You can't be all things to all people and I'm a believer that doing the right thing globally is more important than doing the right thing in your house. That's not an excuse to be a cockbag, but if it's one or the other helping humanity seems somewhat more important.
Selfish motive is simple, Tesla are trying to grow the market. They are far and away the leaders in the electric vehicle space, it's daylight 2nd, 3rd and 4th and that includes the big manufacturers. What they want is more people selling cars in this space which will increase acceptance of electric vehicles and accelerate building the infrastructure required to support it which will in turn lead to a massive increase in their sales. I think it's a good play, establish yourself as the market leader, massively expand your market and given how many vehicles are produced and how few of them are electric there's an enormous potential for expansion.
To me the pricing model makes Google seem far more evil. Apple's customers are consumers who are after a certain degree of privacy so there is a direct monetary incentive for Apple to protect it. Google's customers are businesses who want to breech an individuals privacy so there is a direct monetary incentive for them not to protect an individuals privacy. For me that makes Google more 'evil'.
Agree with IMOA on the logic. Was going to post the same.
How many people would think "if electric cars are that good, why isn't everyone making them?"
So what if your market share drops from 90% to 50% if the market is 10 times bigger, you are still ahead.
One other thing, opening up patents doesn't mean others can make the stuff easily.
You might still have people buy your technology knowing you won't mark it up with license costs.
As for Google, they also play lose and free with tax. Maybe not evil, but certainly not good (ie socially responsible)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote