Tesla Opens Car Patents to Rivals

Elon Musk said Thursday that his Tesla Motors’ electric car patents will be made available to all. “Technology leadership is not defined by patents, which history has repeatedly shown to be small protection indeed against a determined competitor,” Musk said, “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.” Musk also said that Tesla will be opening up the technology it uses to build its supercharger network, which is a chain of charging stations that it is building across the country, and he has already talked to BMW about sharing the network.