Elon Musk, who has always been outspoken on social networks, recently broke a big news: Tesla is open to licensing related software, including the source code of the Autopilot autonomous driving system, and is willing to Provides batteries and power systems to other automakers.
Not long after the words were spoken, part of the open Autopilot source code was already available on Tesla’s official website.
Musk vowed that Tesla was doing this purely to promote the development of renewable energy, not to crush competitors.
While most companies are fighting for their core technologies and patents, Musk went in the opposite direction and generously announced the open source patent rights. This statement immediately won the The outside world is full of praise, and everyone praises Musk as a typical Old Money (traditional aristocrat), a gentleman who loves money and gets it in a wise way.
However, the reaction of the Internet and automotive circles was not so friendly. Instead of applauding Musk, many people even had a straight face, insinuating that Musk was just slapping them again. "Wishful thinking". ?
An out-and-out “appropriationist”
This is strange, for the Internet circle that always values ??openness, free enjoyment, freedom and equality the most , open source should be a good thing, but why is Musk being booed?
It turns out that, unlike traditional car companies, Tesla has been tightly tied to the Internet open platform since its birth, and it inherently carries the open source "gene" - Tesla adopts A large number of open source software are used to build its operating system and functions, such as Linux? Kernel, Buildroot, Busybox, QT, etc.
According to the open source license GPL, open source software can be freely tried and modified by others, but the premise is that any software that uses these open source codes must also open the program source code to customers. Therefore, Tesla's open source to customers is not what outsiders think of as voluntary contribution. To be precise, it is an obligation that must be fulfilled. ?
But Tesla’s performance in this regard is unsatisfactory. ?
Anyone familiar with Musk knows that almost every once in a while, the word "open source" will appear on his social networks, but these boasts rarely come true. Go to the real place.
For example, as early as 2014, Tesla announced that in the spirit of the open source movement, it would dismantle the electric vehicle patent wall owned by Tesla, authorize other companies to use related technologies, and would not Patent lawsuits will be filed against anyone who uses Tesla technology in good faith.
In 2018, Musk brought up the old matter again, saying at a hacker conference that he would promote the open authorization of Tesla’s security software used to protect the autopilot function from attacks, and eventually allow other car manufacturers to commercial use.
The Free Software Conservancy once stated that although Tesla had made many promises, it finally began to take action around 2018 to comply with the GPL license and privately provided multiple CCS ( The complete corresponding source code for all GPL binaries in Model S is a candidate version, but the integrity of these source codes is far from meeting the requirements of the GPL. ?
So, in the eyes of the copyright holders of open source software, Musk’s claims of open source are always met with loud thunder and little rain, often after gaining enough attention on social networks. It quickly disappeared.
The most important spirit of the Internet is openness and sharing, so in the eyes of people in this circle, Musk is just an out-and-out "use person" who only takes things without giving anything in return.
Do you still dare to use Xiaopeng?
Coincidentally, the automotive industry also has doubts about Musk’s bold words on the Internet.
"How much should it be opened? Symbolically or completely? When will it be opened? How long will it be open? Who will it be open to? And can the technical standards of other car companies be compatible with Tesla? Are other car companies capable of taking advantage of it? A series of other issues are uncertain and need to be further implemented," Zhou Lijun, chief analyst of Bitauto Research Institute, replied in an interview with First Electric Network.
Many people also directly commented with insinuations: "Tesla's source code? Xiaopeng said it doesn't need it and doesn't dare to ask for it..."?
Speaking of this, It is impossible not to mention the feud between the two major automakers, Xpeng and Tesla. They were once "friends" - Xiaopeng once publicly admitted that it used Tesla's patented technology; they were also "enemies" - the two completely fell out over the Autopilot source code last year and did not hesitate to go to court.
In March 2019, Tesla filed a lawsuit against Cao Guangzhi, a visual scientist at Autopilot, a former employee who switched to Xpeng after leaving the company, and determined that Xpeng had stolen Tesla’s relevant source code through the employee. . Later, when the Xpeng P7 was about to be officially launched, Musk publicly accused on social media that Xpeng’s technology was a plagiarism of Tesla, and the plagiarism was an old version that had been eliminated. He even proposed to let Xpeng make it public to this day. All autonomous driving source code requirements. Xiaopeng finally directly criticized Tesla for going too far. This dispute has caused a lot of controversy and has not yet been settled.
From the perspective of the industry, Musk is upright and upright in front of the public in front of the stage. He always talks about sharing open source and promoting the development of the industry. When he turns around, he aims his gun at competitors. , using the name of safeguarding intellectual property rights to drag peers who threaten them into the quagmire of litigation. This "two-faced" style is hard not to offend. ?
To generate income? Showing off muscles? Establishing standards
Putting aside the past disputes between Tesla and Xpeng Motors, if this open source can really be implemented to the greatest extent, we can’t help but ask, is Musk serious about this open source? As he claims, he is dedicated to the development of the industry and has no selfish motives at all?
Automotive analyst Zhang Xiang said: "Autopilot software code development is not only a lot of work, but also costly. If these results are only used for Tesla's own products, their one-year plan The sales volume is only about 500,000 vehicles, so obviously the cost sharing is not good enough, which means that the hard-working code cannot be fully utilized. Now choosing open source will attract more car companies to purchase the code copyright, which will also Bringing some revenue to Tesla. And code sharing is increasingly becoming a trend. Baidu's Apollo, Ford, etc. have begun to open their own self-driving source code, which will also be the development trend of the automotive industry. Based on this, Musk’s layout this time is correct.”
“Of course, I don’t think too many car companies will buy it, because most car companies now have their own plans. Small and medium-sized enterprises are likely to buy it," Zhang Xiang added. ?
In business, there is nothing wrong with open source in order to increase revenue, but in the eyes of most car companies, Musk’s motivation behind open source this time is far from simple.
“For now, the only thing we can be clear about is Tesla’s open attitude, and in the final analysis, open source is only for two major purposes. One is to show its own strength, and the other is that it may intentionally set its own standards. It has become an industry standard,” said Zhou Lijun.
Xpeng Motors founder He Xiaopeng also made no secret of it on Weibo, directly tearing off Musk’s “mask”: “For technology companies, openness means greater closure; for technology companies, openness means greater closure; For manufacturing companies, openness means greater competition. Different genes, different distances, and different routes.”
On the surface, Tesla is open to visitors from all over the world to use its source code at will. and the corresponding patents, it is a generous donation, sacrificing oneself for others, but if its open technology is really adopted by many manufacturers, it means that Tesla’s technical logic and standards will be accepted by more and more people, that is, universality will be strengthened, and the final result is that Tesla will become the definer of the entire electric vehicle industry and have absolute say.
Traditional car companies, which have always been shrewd and arrogant, have long seen through Musk's mind. Although Tesla is currently in a leading position in core technology fields such as electric vehicle software and batteries, This is also recognized worldwide. However, no one is willing to stop here, and no one is willing to completely follow Tesla's standards in the near future, being led by the nose, and never getting ahead.
Therefore, for the sake of their own survival security and the retention of long-term competitive strength, most car companies, especially those established car companies and upstarts in the industry, will not hesitate to choose to independently develop core technologies and place their hopes on them. After becoming bigger and stronger, he became the highest authority on industry standards.
The open source that Musk mentioned repeatedly may be said to be a sincere offer of an olive branch to the industry; whether it may be said to be a show of words, amusing oneself and doing gimmicks to gain attention, at least, this kind of toothpaste-like open source This method temporarily blocked the mouth of the original software copyright owner.
But unfortunately, his ambition to unify the electric vehicle industry through open source failed to fool the car companies.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.