statements like "in the spirit of open source movement" and "applying the open source philosophy" are quite clear and actually confusing those with a statement like "Tesla is open source" is kind of stupid.
Don't be naive, he intentionally crafted this misleading wording to create the association with open source.
I'm fully aware of that
but that's the kind of "mandatory" corporate ethics nowadays
you would be considered stupid to miss such a opportunity, especially when talking about a giant leap like opening your patents
i wouldn't blame Elon for that, smart people got the message, the others are confusing it with "Tesla is open source".
btw... opening the patents is like "fractional open source" - you release the intellectual property , but keep your R&D closed. other companies can do their own R&D and end up with the same product. the final result is the same, the other company was able to develop the same product without paying for the intellectual property. and actually their R&D might come up with a better solution - further improving that EV technology.
releasing something as real open source hardware has 2 effects:
1. people/companies interested in the technology will jump in and improve/fix/provide support - this is why we do open source
2. Chinese companies will start mass production (using the cheapest materials they could find, not giving a rat's ass about quality/safety) in the very form as it was released into open source - saturate the market and effectively discarding any room for improvements/development of the product (only few people would buy the improved/evolved version).
imagine what would happen if someone would release a full EV technology as open source.