Tesla Open To Licensing Autopilot & Supplying OEMs With Powertrains, Batteries To Push EV Adoption

Featured Image Credit: Ninian Reid/Flickr [CC BY 2.0]

Elon Musk—and in extension Tesla—extended a friendly hand to legacy automakers recently. Musk suggested that Tesla would be open to licensing its software, specifically Autopilot. He even went a step further and said Tesla would be open to supplying powertrains and batteries as well.

Musk emphasized Tesla’s mission to accelerate sustainable energy, not crush its competitors at the end of his tweet. The EV automaker has always shared some of its tech innovations, hoping that it could help traditional automakers produce all-electric vehicles of their own.

However, OEMs seem a little too proud to use Tesla’s tech, instead opting to design an electric vehicle from the bottom up. Some just seem adamant not to work with Tesla.

For example, Daimler was considering a collaboration with either VW or BMW to develop an operating system for its vehicles even though Tesla already developed one. Daimler and Tesla worked together before so it wouldn’t haven’t been a strange collaboration.

Sure

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2020

One commenter, @jrosinski, noted that Tesla would be making the transition to EVs too easy for legacy automakers. Tesla has put a lot of effort, time, and resources towards developing its technology, especially Autopilot and its batteries. Elon Musk and Tesla’s willingness to supply software and technology to OEMs would be a win-win situation. Legacy automakers get the basics they need to produce EVs and Tesla becomes a major supplier for all-electric cars.

At this point, Tesla has developed and optimized a supply chain for autonomous battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and most OEMs are still deeply entrenched with suppliers in the ICE market. As countries around the world choose to go down the greener path, the division between EV market and the global auto market continues to diminish. So now might be a good time to start building relationships with companies, like Tesla, that have a good foothold in the EV market and understand the complexities of autonomous technology.