Not saying that Tesla is out to take our freedom. Just that they way of things (like this one) are leading to end of ownership. But even there, I don't think Tesla is so much worried about ride-sharing regulations as they are about it happening exclusively on their network:"Please note also that using a self-driving Tesla for car sharing and ride hailing for friends and family is fine, but doing so for revenue purposes will only be permissible on the Tesla Network, details of which will be released next year."
I'm not you have the right sense of Tesla as a company. They don't entrench. They don't defend. Their only defense is simply that they innovate and iterate faster than anyone else in their industry. They don't want to lock people into their network. The network is a means to an end: get more people to see electric cars as "cars" and not as "electric, limited use, limited range, cars". The Tesla Network simply gets more people into their cars, which gets more people to buy their cars. It also helps people see Tesla as a utility, and not as an exotic car like a Lamborghini. Tesla is out to break expectations for "what companies do", and draw a new profile for what a successful company can be like. But they have to operate within the existing legal frameworks, one of which is that licenses for commercial activities come with an enormous amount of additional rules and regulations that someone has to sign on to. You can drive your ratrod on the road for personal conveyance. You cannot use your ratrod as a taxi. Same thing here with Tesla's licensing. It's not about what Tesla wants. It's about the regulatory framework that Tesla is trying to dismantle, piece by piece.
Yeah, I just don't agree. The definition of ownership has been steadily shifting but the notion that the physical good is yours, the software that runs it ain't is hardly new. This is Tesla saying they don't extend a commercial license to their autonomy software and guaranteed - everyone else will do the same as soon as they decide they're willing to release it. The fact that Tesla jumped the gun on "self-driving" pretty much guarantees that they jump the gun on licensing. You aren't allowed to make money with an academic version of Photoshop, either. Never have been. You want to use it to make money, you buy a different license. Same same.