Tesla has started opening its Supercharger network to other companies, and now the company’s CEO says he’s happy to license some key pieces of the company’s technology.
“Tesla wants to be as useful as possible to other car companies,” CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter.
“Also happy to license Autopilot/FSD or other Tesla technology.”
This is not the first time Tesla has made its technology available to others, having announced in 2014 that it would open source all of its patents.
Tesla’s Autopilot was first introduced in 2014, though it didn’t get adaptive cruise control and lane centering until 2016.
The company has begun rolling out a fully self-driving beta in 2020.
By making this technology available under license, Tesla could offer automakers the opportunity to avoid having to develop their own systems from scratch or – more likely – contract companies. another to get the same technology.
The company has removed ultrasonic and radar sensors from its vehicles in favor of a camera-only setup it calls Tesla Vision, which powers two Level 2 autonomous driving features.
The Autopilot and FSD systems have endured a lot of criticism as well as regulatory action and regulatory scrutiny over their effectiveness.
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This is in addition to two ongoing investigations by the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration, a US regulator.
One of these is at the technical analysis stage and is looking at collisions with stationary emergency vehicles, while the other is looking at virtual brake reports.
The agency confirmed it was investigating the 17th fatal crash involving Autopilot, after a Model S collided with a parked fire truck in Contra Costa County, California in February.
Shareholders also recently filed a lawsuit against Tesla in federal court in San Francisco, alleging that they were defrauded by the company with false and misleading claims about the technology “creating a risk of accidents and serious injury”.
Tesla is also said to be the subject of a US Department of Justice investigationallegedly testing whether Tesla misled consumers, investors and regulators by making unsubstantiated claims about the capabilities of its driver-assist technology.
In a pardon for Tesla, the California jury see benefits for Tesla earlier this year in a case involving its Autopilot system.
