Here's an interesting wrinkle in the autonomous driving race: Tesla Inc. (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk says he's been trying to help legacy automakers catch up by offering to license the company's Full Self-Driving technology. The catch? They're apparently not interested.
The Offer Nobody Wants
In a thread on X Monday, Musk said he's tried to "warn" traditional automakers about the self-driving revolution coming their way. He even went so far as to offer licensing deals for Tesla's FSD technology. The response, according to Musk, has been underwhelming at best. "They don't want it," he said, calling the situation "crazy."
When legacy manufacturers do engage with Tesla, the conversations apparently go nowhere fast. Musk says they "tepidly discuss implementing FSD for a tiny program in 5 years," with requirements that become "unworkable" and "pointless" for Tesla to pursue. He punctuated his post with dinosaur emojis, a not-so-subtle suggestion that traditional automakers risk extinction if they don't get serious about autonomous technology.
The Final Puzzle Piece
The timing of these comments is notable. Musk recently said the FSD v14.3 update could be the final piece needed for truly unsupervised autonomous driving. That's a bold claim, but the FSD v14 release has earned praise from various experts who consider it a significant leap forward from previous versions.
Meanwhile, Musk is talking big about Tesla's chip-making ambitions. He predicts the company will soon be manufacturing more AI chips than all of its competitors. Tesla's AI lead, Ahsok Elluswamy, backed up these claims, pointing to tight collaboration between the hardware and software teams as the secret sauce driving chip development forward.
It's a curious moment in the automotive industry. Tesla is apparently willing to share its self-driving technology, but legacy manufacturers seem content to move at their own pace, even if that means getting left behind. Whether that's wisdom or stubbornness remains to be seen.
Price Action: TSLA surged 6.82% to $417.78 at market close, then added another 0.24% to reach $418.78 during after-hours trading.