Tesla is in early discussions to license its Full Self-Driving software to a major automaker, CEO Elon Musk said during the Q2 Earnings Call.
Earlier this year, Musk said in a Tweet that Tesla would be happy to license Autopilot or Full Self-Driving technology to other companies in an effort to move autonomous driving forward.
“Happy to license Autopilot/FSD or other Tesla technology,” Musk Tweeted.
Tesla aspires to be as helpful as possible to other car companies.
We made all our patents freely available several years ago.
Now, we are enabling other companies to use our Supercharger network.
Also happy to license Autopilot/FSD or other Tesla technology.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2023
The development of licensing either Autopilot or FSD forward has been confirmed, Musk said, as he confirmed Tesla is in early discussions with a “major” automaker.
We predicted that since Ford and General Motors are already in the development of their own self-driving efforts, they would likely not be the ones to license Autopilot or FSD from Tesla. However, Ford and General Motors were the first companies to adopt Tesla’s NACS connector for its EVs, gaining access to 12,000 Supercharger locations starting in Spring 2024 as a part of their agreements.
“We believe that Tesla, other companies making electric cars, and the world would all benefit from a common, rapidly-evolving technology platform,” Musk wrote in a 2014 blog post. “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.”
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