I remember that marketing trick.
"Change the world"
I remember that one too.
Now I'm a skeptic. I just can't get excited about Tesla claims anymore. My brain has developed defensive mechanisms against their propaganda/PR machine.
They did, tho.
They've pretty much forced the worldwide electrification of cars to happen, in spite of the market wanted. That's a huge help for humanity and a big change to the world.
It's funny you should become skeptical over the rare case where pretentious slogans were actually true.
They did give away their patents under the condition that everybody using them cannot sue Tesla. It's a bad deal for every other automaker because they either have far larger and far more specific patent pools or if they don't have patents, Tesla can steal every idea they will ever have.
The whole thing was marketing bs from the very start. Tesla knew that nobody would take them up on the offer and in fact, literally nobody did.
Not true: they can still sue Tesla but, then, Tesla reserves the right to sue them too (if they believe the patent is being used as part of an initiative against electrification).
The judge will be the one evaluating the "good faith" argument and Tesla can lose, of course.
Tesla revenues are already 1/3 of GM, and increasing extremely fast (+73% YoY) while other are trying to maintain their market shares and will probably eat their own (profitability) while trying to switch to EV. More importantly, Tesla has over 75% of EV revenues market shares in the US and probably >99% of the profits.
>Tesla's patents also don't seem very relevant as there are plenty of other EV models on the market now, so why risk it?
The relevance of their patents also rises as they continue to increase their technical lead (in cell production, structural packs, energy management systems…). Where does the competition compete, when we look at their latest products (e.g Model S 2021 vs Porsche Taycan, or Model Y vs Fors Mach E)?
You mean Elon's tweets?
Because Tesla has, by far, the tiniest "propaganda/PR machine" in their industry. Do you have any idea how much their competitors spend on PR, advertising and lobbying? Also, how much their suppliers and partners (e.g oil and gas) bring to the table?