Tesla has been in a lot of headlines lately as major automakers have been knocking on their door to adopt their charging technology, known as the North American Charging Standard (NACS). They could be making headlines soon by signing another deal, but this time for Full Self-Driving (FSD).
During the company’s Q2 2023 earnings call, one of the questions submitted by a retail investor was whether any automaker approached Tesla to license FSD, after CEO Elon Musk saying last month on Twitter he would be happy to do so.
Tesla aspires to be as helpful as possible to other car companies.
We made all our patents freely available several years ago.
Now, we are enabling other companies to use our Supercharger network.
Also happy to license Autopilot/FSD or other Tesla technology.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2023
It appears that tweet led to at least one automaker following up on the offer. When answering the question Musk reiterated that sentiment, while at the same time revealing the company is already in discussions with a major automaker to license FSD.
“We are very open to licensing our FSD software and hardware to other car companies, and we’re already in discussions with a major OEM about using Tesla FSD,” Musk said.
The question now becomes who that major automaker is. The approach taken thus far by some automakers is to partner with third-parties, but that hasn’t always worked out well. Ford and Volkswagen’s investment in Argo AI didn’t turn out well after it shut down last year, with both automakers absorbing different parts of the company.
The other part of the equation is even if an automaker signs on the dotted line to license FSD, it will likely be at least several years before we see it on the road. That’s because of all the hardware that will be required on the vehicle, like cameras, displays, and the FSD computer itself, and making changes like that to a vehicle’s design doesn’t happen overnight.
In other FSD news, Musk also announced during the call that owners with FSD will be allowed to transfer for it to a new Tesla, but only for a limited time.
Who do you think Tesla is in discussions with? Let us know in the comments below.
