Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk once again took to his social media platform X to remind legacy automakers that they are left far behind in making self-driving cars. The best way to cope with this issue is to license Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) AI technology.
According to Musk, once in a while, legacy automakers reach out to Tesla to inquire about Tesla FSD licensing and the implementation of this technology. However, these companies don’t approach this matter with a serious intent.
Elon Musk was responding to a tweet on X that pointed out the weakness of traditional automakers in today’s AI-driven world. Self-driving cars are on the horizon, and the disruption is visible, yet companies like Ford, GM, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes, Mazda, Toyota, and Honda aren’t realizing the threat.
Tesla influencer Sawyer Merritt started the discussion by posting the comments of Melius Research analyst Rob Wertheimer on X. Wertheimer acknowledged Tesla’s edge in the autonomous driving technology. He said:
Tesla’s autonomous-driving lead is approaching an irreversible tipping point that could trigger one of the biggest value shifts in modern industrial history. Tesla is a must-own because the world is about to change dramatically.
In the first phase of its mission, Tesla led the transition to electric vehicles. Elon Musk’s vision in EV technology forced the automotive industry to follow his lead. Now, even the old automotive companies mentioned above are making electric vehicles or investing in EV companies.
The renewed mission of Tesla is all about autonomous cars, robots, and running these pieces of hardware through real-world artificial intelligence (AI). Once again, Elon Musk is leading the vision for this next phase of Tesla growth and a potentially massive disruption.
Tesla has been developing its FSD AI technology for more than a decade now. Through these years, Elon Musk faced intense criticism and scrutiny for his claims. Particularly, the Autopilot 2.0 Conference Call he conducted in 2016 (I’ve been covering Autopilot/FSD through all these years).
The recent improvements with FSD v13 and now FSD v14 have made Tesla’s edge in autonomous-driving tech even more visible. Even the latest version of FSD v14 has some issues, but they are not something that can’t be taken care of.
Our point is not that Tesla is at risk, it’s that everybody else is.
Rob Wertheimer / Melius Research
Musk responded to Wertheimer’s analysis and said that he has warned legacy automakers of this upcoming disruption multiple times. However, it seems that old leadership at these automotive companies isn’t realizing the magnitude of the forthcoming autonomous AI disruption. Musk wrote:
I’ve tried to warn them and even offered to license Tesla FSD, but they don’t want it! Crazy …
When legacy auto does occasionally reach out, they tepidly discuss implementing FSD for a tiny program in 5 years with unworkable requirements for Tesla, so pointless.
To implement Tesla FSD, other automakers need to rebuild the electrical architecture of their cars. Of course, this is not possible with the ongoing production. However, it can be successfully integrated into upcoming models and newly developed vehicles that are in the prototype phase.
Tesla vehicles have eight external and one cabin camera. These cameras utilize the neural-net-based AI vision to navigate the car in real-world traffic freely. Tesla HW4/AI4 vehicles have an HD radar as well, but it is not currently in use by the FSD software.
This camera architecture and Tesla AI computer hardware need to be implemented on Tesla’s specifications to enable Autopilot FSD on non-Tesla vehicles. This is a difficult and costly procedure. However, licensing and implementing Tesla FSD would future-proof the cars of the legacy manufacturers.
Tesla FSD is not yet a Level 5 autonomous AI software, but it’s definitely going in the right direction.
Tesla cars have already driven billions of miles on Full Self-Driving. This has provided an enormous amount of video feeds and data to create the world’s most powerful purpose-built neural network.
No other automaker or company holds such a huge amount of data and AI data centers to match Tesla’s advantage in autonomous driving technology. They have a good chance to license Tesla FSD and avoid the aftereffects of the massive change that’s visible on the horizon.
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Related Tesla FSD News
- License Tesla FSD or face the disruption — Musk once again warns legacy automakers
- Tesla offers 30-day FSD v14 trials to HW4 vehicles in North America, FSD v14.2 goes wide release
- Tesla FSD v14.2 modifies how you select Speed Profiles and Arrival Options
- FSD v14.2 parking lot handling tests give mixed results (videos), Tesla expands the rollout circle
- Tesla begins limited rollout of the FSD v14.2 (2025.38.9.5) update, adds Self-Driving Stats feature (official release notes)
- Tesla Cybertruck owners share first impressions of FSD v14.1.7 (videos)
