Autopilot Hardware 3.0 is just the upcoming ‘Tesla Computer’, says Musk
No new sensors, no new wire harnesses, no new radar, and no new cameras just the new and upcoming superfast ‘Tesla Computer’, retrofit it in Tesla vehicles with Hardware 2.5+ (vehicles manufactured since Aug 2017) and you’re on Autopilot Hardware 3.0 (AP HW3).
Elon Musk clarified all the confusions and nullified all the rumors surrounding the next big thing in Tesla’s full self-driving ambition, the Autopilot HW3 — last year the Tesla CEO said that the swap between the Hardware 2.5 and HW3 computers is super easy.
Answering the questions on Twitter asked by a follower and probably a Tesla owner who bought the Full Self-Driving (FSD) option, Elon Musk said:
As per the above infographic, all Tesla vehicles with Hardware 2.5 that consists of 12 ultrasonic sensors, 8 cameras (3 front, 2 side repeaters, 2 rear sides, and 1 rear/reverse), and a front radar — this set of hardware is enough for full self-driving but the current Nvidia Drive PX2 GPU is not able to process the Tesla Vision as fast as it is required for FSD.
The new Tesla Supercomputer will replace the Nvidia Drive PX2 — this retrofit according to Tesla/Elon Musk will increase the data processed and supplied to the Tesls’ Neural Network by 500% to 2000%.
Tesla has been working on their custom AI Supercomputer chip for a long time and Musk has been talking about it time to time but this year seems to be the time that Tesla will actually start swapping their cars with the new processor/GPU.
As Tesla owners who bought the FSD package already and are entitled to the ‘free’ upgrade to the new Tesla FSD Computer are already excited for the change and want it as soon as possible but Elon Musk stated that they are working on refining the Autopilot Software to match the capabilities of the new HW3, he said:
Retrofits will start when our software is able to take meaningful advantage of the Tesla FSD computer, which is an order of magnitude more capable. For now, it’s slightly disadvantageous to have Tesla FSD computer, as our software is more refined for HW2.
Last year with the major Autopilot V9 Software Update Tesla increased the efficiency of the entire fleet’s processing capabilities but these will be dwarfed by the new FSD Computer / Autopilot Hardware 3.0
Rumor has that the new Tesla Model 3, Model S and Model X currently being produced at Tesla’s Fremont factory are already equipped with the new ‘Autopilot Hardware 3.0 Computer’ but let’s take this with a grain of salt — Elon Musk did not reply when asked this question, so it might be or it might be not.
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