Tesla will support Full Self Driving licensing by other manufacturers, Elon Musk said on Twitter. This is something that I suspected would happen once FSD is fully solved and Tesla has reached either Level 4 or Level 5 autonomy. It actually makes sense from a financial standpoint for Tesla to license it to other manufacturers. Licensing FSD would become another stream of income for the company.
Elon’s response on this topic was to Solving The Money Problem’s Steven Mark Ryan. Ryan’s initial thread addressed the reactions of the media and analysts to Tesla’s Q4 2021 earnings call.
Tesla will support FSD licensing by other manufacturers
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2022
Ryan noted that, in a nutshell, the reaction was that Elon promised big product updates, but that Tesla was prioritizing the Optimus Bot and that FSD would probably be solved this year. It seems that analysts and some of those in the media don’t see the value in the Optimus bot or FSD. Of course, many hardcore Tesla critics believe FSD is vaporware. I agree with Ryan’s take. Extreme critics refuse to acknowledge or at least try to understand the value of Tesla’s FSD. They seem to be in their own little box and unable to look past the present moment and see the future.
It is becoming clear that Tesla is going to solve autonomy so what FSD doubters can do nowadays is to point out grammatical errors in Elon's tweet 😂
— Beniko Goto (@Beniko26020660) January 28, 2022
Elon responded as well adding that he thinks it would take five or more years before another company besides Tesla would be able to solve FSD. Ryan agreed, adding that many will come to the realization that Tesla’s lead is impossible to catch up to and would rather license FSD.
“After all, when Tesla has data showing FSD is 2x, 5x, 10x safer than human and second place isn’t even at human-level…. is licensing FSD really a choice or an obligation?”
GM in 2022: We are the leader. SuperCruise is better than anyone else's.
GM in 2024: ELON WE WERE SO WRONG. CAN WE LICENSE FSD PLEEEASE 😭 WE PROMISE TO PAY YOU IN DOGE
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) January 28, 2022
Although Sawyer’s tweet above gave me a little giggle, I wouldn’t be surprised if this happened and then GM either takes credit or is given credit by bought and paid for politicians for the software it licenses.
I believed that Tesla FSD beta 11.8 could possibly reach L4 as early as July 2022. It is NOT vaporware, but it is real and will save 35,000 lives in the USA alone and about 1.2 million lives worldwide. We are united behind Tesla FSD and Elon. Saving lives matter. https://t.co/WWOyEtL7QO
— KoGuan Leo (@KoguanLeo) January 28, 2022
Licensing FSD To Other Manufactures
One thing to note here is that Elon didn’t say auto manufacturers — just manufacturers. Although it’s wise to assume he had auto manufacturers in mind, once perfected, this technology can be implemented in all types of machines — from cars to actual robots.
This would translate into massive profits for Tesla — something that many critics said Tesla would never achieve. I remember those days of bankruptcy predictions, and soon the days of “FSD is vaporware” will be behind us as well.
Tesla’s achievements are not just ahead of its competitors, but it’s so novel and game-changing that it will actually reshape the world we live in and how we interact with the world. Here’s more of what Elon said during the Q4 2021 earnings call:
“We think full self-driving will become the most important source of profitability for Tesla. It’s — actually, if you run the numbers on robotaxis, it’s kind of nutty — it’s nutty good from a financial standpoint.
“And I think we are completely confident at this point that it will be achieved. And my personal guess is that we’ll achieve full self-driving this year, yeah, with data safety level significantly greater than the present. So it’s — you know, the cars in the fleet essentially becoming self-driving by a software update, I think, might end up being the biggest increase in asset value of any asset class in history. We shall see.
“It would also have a profound impact on improving safety and on accelerating the world toward sustainable energy through vastly better asset utilization.”
I don’t think @elonmusk is crazy when he talks about Tesla’s autonomy and real world AI ambitions
I’ve been using FSD Beta on my car for 16 months now and I believe him. If my car can walk through a street filled with people why can’t tesla bot? pic.twitter.com/89NBVuNIcV
— Whole Mars (@WholeMarsBlog) January 28, 2022
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
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