Automakers Have Not Accepted Tesla’s FSD Licensing Offer, Musk Confirms

Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed on Monday that no other automakers have accepted Tesla’s standing offer to license its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, despite the company making the invitation public since at least 2021.

What Happened

Musk responded with the word "Exactly" to a post by Sawyer Merritt, which stated that Tesla has openly invited other automakers to license FSD for years with no takers. This reply addressed a prediction by Boom Supersonic founder Blake Scholl, who suggested Tesla might eventually open FSD to rivals similarly to how it opened its Supercharger network. Musk had previously characterized legacy automakers' reluctance to adopt FSD as "crazy" in November.

Why It Matters

The lack of adoption highlights a fundamental difference between charging infrastructure and autonomous driving software. While the North American Charging Standard (NACS) saw rapid adoption by Ford, GM, and Rivian within a year of becoming the de facto standard, FSD licensing presents unique barriers. Unlike a plug specification, licensing FSD requires adopting Tesla’s eight-camera layout and onboard compute architecture, effectively making licensee vehicles use Tesla hardware. Furthermore, the software stack reports telemetry data back to Tesla, offering competitors a continuous read on how rival cars are driven and where they struggle. For automakers building their own autonomy programs, sharing this proprietary data could outweigh the benefits of avoiding the cost of developing a stack from scratch.

The Bottom Line

Tesla’s FSD licensing remains in a holding pattern as automakers weigh the hardware constraints and data-sharing implications against the potential speed of adopting a mature autonomy stack. The Supercharger analogy does not fully translate to software licensing due to the strategic value of proprietary driving data.