Following numerous crashes involving Tesla's Autopilot self-driving car technology, the company recently announced that it's been quietly developing improvements to the hardware behind the tech.
Tesla is moving away from Nvidia's GPU-based offering and moving towards its own proprietary AI chips. This information was revealed in an earnings call with company CEO Elon Musk. During the call, Musk added that Tesla's in-dev chip will most likely be used in its Model 3, Model S, and Model X electric vehicles.
If you're wondering why Tesla would move away from a tried-and-true solution and strike out on its own, the answer lies in performance.
Company director Pete Bannon hopped on the call to say Tesla's new hardware will be able to process up to 2,000 frames per second - a significant bump from the 200 frames per second Nvidia's hardware could handle.
Faster processing speeds are likely not the only reason Tesla wants to develop their AI hardware in-house, though. By building the chip internally, Tesla can move its tech forward at a much quicker rate than its competitors.
As TechCrunch notes, the company won't have to wait for Nvidia to roll out its next set of AI hardware. Instead, Tesla can move forward whenever its ready, and fix problems or improve its hardware as needed. Additionally, it's worth noting that Musk claims Tesla's in-house hardware will cost them about the same as the tech they were buying from Nvidia.
If you're wondering when Tesla plans to implement this hardware in its vehicles, Bannon believes the upgrade process will start as early as next year.