Tesla plans to license its Full Self-Driving system to other automakers

In a surprise announcement during Tesla’s Q2 2023 investor call, company head Elon Musk revealed that Tesla plans to license its Full Self-Driving system to other automakers and OEMs. “We are very open to licensing our FSD software and hardware to other car companies,” Musk said, “and we’re already in discussions with a major OEM about using a Tesla FSD.” Musk also announced a “one-time amnesty,” during Q3 which will allow owners to transfer their existing FSD subscription to a newly purchased Tesla. 

Tesla remains the top US EV producer with a new internal record internal record with 479,700 vehicles built and 466,140 of them delivered in Q2, up ~87 percent YoY. During the call, CEO Elon Musk noted that during Q1, the Model Y became the best selling vehicle “of any kind… surpassing the likes of Corolla.”

The first production Cybertruck rolled off the assembly line this quarter as well, though you couldn’t see much of the vehicle from its official release photo. The Cybertruck line has entered tooling, according to the company, and is expected to begin steady production sometime next year.

Tesla is currently testing the vehicle line ahead of regulatory certification and validation. “This is the first truck, that we’re aware of, that will have four doors, over a six foot bed but fits into a 20-foot garage,” Musk said. “It’s bigger on the outside, but it’s even bigger on the inside.”

The company made headlines in Q2 after opening its previously-proprietary charging port design to the rest of the industry. Mercedes, Volvo, Rivian, Ford and GM vehicles will use the design for their North American models beginning in the 2024 model year. Texas went so far as to require its state-funded EV charging stations accommodate the standard. Tesla’s charging network station capacity has grown by a third from this time last year, with 48,082 chargers in total spread across 5,265 stations, globally.

This past quarter has seen a number of scandals at the company including its executives accused of being overpaid by a cool $735 million dollars since 2017 as well as Elon being suspected of misappropriating company funds to build a glass house. Not a fancy aboratorium, not a metaphor for Twitter, a literal “glass house.”

Wednesday’s investor deck specifically noted Tesla’s “commitment to being at the forefront of AI development” with the start of production for its Dojo training computers, which will be used to help Autopilot developers iterate future designs and features. “Our artificial intelligence development is entering a new era and we’re incredibly excited about what’s to come,” Musk said during the call.

Musk admitted that the company still only has around 10 early prototypes in use, “but there’s more and more every month” despite the company being unable to find sources for the Optimus robot’s acuators. “We actually have to design our own,” he said. He expects to have an Optimus with those in-house designed actuators installed “and walking around” by November and, “have something useful in our factories sometime next year.”