Tesla Ditches Patents

[Shinysideup]

Surprising press release today (the title of the release is intentional):

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you

I found this comment interesting:

"I wonder if this opens the door to making the Tesla charge plug an industry standard? It is far superior to the J1772, CHAdeMO and the SAE Frankenplug and could replace all three on future EVs and chargers. It could also mean the end of charge stations that can only charge one brand of car."

[flar]

I love this move by Tesla, but even more to our potential benefit - they are talking with other EV manufacturers about opening up their charging technology.  Brammo engineers have talked about waiting out the ChaDemo vs. SAE DC charging standard wars with an eye towards SAE combo plugs, but this could side step all of that.  Imagine having just one port for the slim Tesla connector (backwards compatible with J1772 with just a small plastic coupler)?  Unfortunately, the spacing of the superchargers is too sparse to benefit our bikes for long range riding, but it could mean a simpler plug arrangement.

(And the ability to recharge quickly at the many Tesla showrooms cropping up, or any garage with a Tesla HPWC...)