An idiot who is the chief engineer of SpaceX and Tesla, who transforms entire industries, who gives away his companies’ IP for free to competitors! It’s a shame how the majority HN mindset has shifted in the last few years. People used to have more optimism here. Go on, hit the downvote button and feel better, sort of.
In the interview he states that Tesla has open sourced “all” their patents, and that SpaceX doesn’t register patents except occasionally to stop patent trolls.
Perhaps! Should be an easy one to prove. Feel free to point me in the direction of any evidence, such as a Tesla patent that has not been open sourced. Or in fact any concrete, straightforward evidence for your claim that he “lies a lot”. I’m interested. I have found him to be one of the most direct and honest people in big tech.
> On June 12, 2014, Tesla announced that it will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use its technology.
with the following definition:
> A party is "acting in good faith" for so long as such party and its related or affiliated companies have not:
> * asserted, helped others assert or had a financial stake in any assertion of (i) any patent or other intellectual property right against Tesla or (ii) any patent right against a third party for its use of technologies relating to electric vehicles or related equipment;
> * challenged, helped others challenge, or had a financial stake in any challenge to any Tesla patent; or
> * marketed or sold any knock-off product (e.g., a product created by imitating or copying the design or appearance of a Tesla product or which suggests an association with or endorsement by Tesla) or provided any material assistance to another party doing so.
In other words, Tesla is giving away all of their patents only to entities that grant Tesla access to all of _their_ patents. That is hardly open-source in the software development sense of the word.
He's an idiot who hires smart people who do great things in spite of him. He's not really an engineer. It's merely a title he probably bestowed upon himself.