In a move that stands to benefit both the environment and his own electric car company, Tesla CEO Elon Musk
announced Thursday that, "in the spirit of the open source movement," the company "will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology." The
goal is expansion of the overall electric car market:
According to Musk, Tesla made this gesture to—once again—try to nudge the rest of the automotive market along. Tesla’s Model S has proved that there’s massive interest in a well-made, fun-to-drive electric car. Still, Tesla is barely making a dent in the massive auto market. Musk wants to promote a more dramatic shift toward electric cars, so he will do what he can to accelerate things. “I don’t think people quite appreciate the gravity of what is going on [with regard to global warming] or just how much inertia the climate has,” Musk said during a conference call. “We really need to do something. It would be shortsighted if we try to hold these things close to our vest.”
Increasing the market for electric cars around Tesla's patents could
expand the infrastructure to support Tesla drivers:
Carter Driscoll, a senior tech analyst at investment bank MLV & Co., told HuffPost that Tesla could be trying to entice innovators to build battery-powered cars that are compatible with Tesla chargers. Doing so would help Tesla become the industry backbone and expand its network of power stations without building them itself, he said.
"On the charging side, there is no standard," he said by phone. "This is [Tesla] trying to standardize the technology they've created."
So there's actually a sound business reason for Musk's step in making the patents available. But, as his statement announcing the move makes clear, it's not just about a race for profit. There's another, much bigger race going on—and this move comes out of the knowledge that "it is impossible for Tesla to build electric cars fast enough to address the carbon crisis." Musk is hoping that offering Tesla's technology to other companies will help slow that crisis.