kostby Posted June 12, 2014 Report Share Posted June 12, 2014 My Personal Subheading: A move certain to thrill electric vehicle manufacturers, and enrage patent trolls... Source posting: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you Yesterday, there was a wall of Tesla patents in the lobby of our Palo Alto headquarters. That is no longer the case. They have been removed, in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology.Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal. Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.When I started out with my first company, Zip2, I thought patents were a good thing and worked hard to obtain them. And maybe they were good long ago, but too often these days they serve merely to stifle progress, entrench the positions of giant corporations and enrich those in the legal profession, rather than the actual inventors. After Zip2, when I realized that receiving a patent really just meant that you bought a lottery ticket to a lawsuit, I avoided them whenever possible.At Tesla, however, we felt compelled to create patents out of concern that the big car companies would copy our technology and then use their massive manufacturing, sales and marketing power to overwhelm Tesla. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The unfortunate reality is the opposite: electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn’t burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent, constituting an average of far less than 1% of their total vehicle sales.At best, the large automakers are producing electric cars with limited range in limited volume. Some produce no zero emission cars at all.Given that annual new vehicle production is approaching 100 million per year and the global fleet is approximately 2 billion cars, it is impossible for Tesla to build electric cars fast enough to address the carbon crisis. By the same token, it means the market is enormous. Our true competition is not the small trickle of non-Tesla electric cars being produced, but rather the enormous flood of gasoline cars pouring out of the world’s factories every day.We believe that Tesla, other companies making electric cars, and the world would all benefit from a common, rapidly-evolving technology platform. 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. JAZ and hybridbear 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowStorm Posted June 13, 2014 Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 Maybe one of them covers packing batteries out of the way under the floor! Would sure help the NRG! hybridbear 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kostby Posted June 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 For one thing, Tesla uses liquid cooling. Several of the Tesla Model S fires were reportedly caused by the car striking road hazards with the under-floor area where the batteries and liquid cooling are located. (Tesla quickly issued a software update raising the ride-height of the car while the investigation continued.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopherTheME Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 I really like this and as an engineer in the field of battery and fuel cell powertrains I completely agree with Elon. Patents hinder progress and are no longer an instrument for protecting a single person intellectual property. They have been twisted to become a corporate tool for creating lawsuits and generating revenue for lawyers. Down with patents but more importantly down with patent lawyers! For one thing, Tesla uses liquid cooling. Several of the Tesla Model S fires were reportedly caused by the car striking road hazards with the under-floor area where the batteries and liquid cooling are located. (Tesla quickly issued a software update raising the ride-height of the car while the investigation continued.) Only one of the fires was caused by road debri. The rest were caused by normal accidents. hybridbear 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kostby Posted June 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 (edited) Only one of the fires was caused by road debri. The rest were caused by normal accidents. This was one source, (March 2014) where the NHTSA investigated two road-debris incidents:http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchResults?searchType=ID&targetCategory=I&searchCriteria.nhtsa_ids=PE13037I thought I read of a third fire caused by "road debris", but I can't find that source now. It may have been the car in Mexico that ran off road and eventually through a wall. And running changes include adding more underbody protection, as well as retrofitting all existing cars: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1091137_tesla-model-s-to-get-titanium-battery-shield-plus-deflectors-breaking Edited June 16, 2014 by kostby hybridbear 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopherTheME Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 kostby, my mistake. Apparently there has been more Model S fires than I am aware of. Heres another from earilier this year in Toronto: http://www.businessinsider.com/february-1st-toronto-tesla-fire-2014-2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowStorm Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 If you feel unsafe in your Model S, I'll gladly take it off your hands! Don't get me wrong, fires are serious and the cause should be fixed. But why no clamor over gasoline car fires? A friend was barely able to stop and get the kids out before the van burned up. A coworker's car caught fire just sitting in the parking lot. Saw another car recently burning away on the roadside. And now there's another spot where something else must have burned to the axles. You might claim its a low percentage but if gasoline were invented today, it wouldn't stand a chance! Dangerous stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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