In a recent interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, the head of Tesla Motor, Elon Musk, discussed how his decision to have Tesla open its electric car patents to the public was motivated by the hope that it would inspire many to follow his follow the example of his company more quickly. “A lot of people say, ‘Well, is this really an altruistic decision,’ ‘does altruism really exist?’ ‘no company would really do that,’” Musk said. “I think it’s important to bear in mind that we’re really all in the same ship, being Earth. If Tesla succeeds, but then the climate is destroyed, I’m not sure that actually helps Tesla.”
It was only announced just last week that Tesla was going to open its patents up to the “open-source community.” The company promised that it would not file any intellectual property lawsuits against any other person or company who was using Tesla’s designs. Musk hoped that this sign of good faith (stating that the company would not pursue any lawsuits) would gain the trust of others and motivate them to get working on their electric car models.
Reportedly, Tesla’s move made more than 500 patents available for public consumption – illustrating just how far ahead Tesla is compared to other companies when it comes to the manufacturing of electric cars. “I’ve somewhat been surprised at how much of a lead we have,” Musk said. “We don’t want to have the lead we have. We were kind of hoping other car companies would follow up faster.”
Nowadays, where it always appears that competitors will lie and scheme and really do anything just to get ahead, Elon Musk’s motivations for making Tesla’s electric patents public are incredibly refreshing and very admirable. He doesn’t need his company to be number one on the planet when it comes to producing electric cars. He just wants there to be a planet left for these cars to drive upon.
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
