TESLA CEO ELON Musk showed investors on Monday a custom-designed artificial intelligence chip his company recently began installing in its vehicles. He claimed it was powerful enough to allow Teslas to pilot themselves without supervision by the end of this year. “All Tesla cars being produced right now have everything necessary for full self-driving,” Musk said. “All you need to do is improve the software.”
That’s a big claim, given that no one has yet demonstrated a self-driving vehicle that’s ready for market. Because chip design is a complex business, Tesla began designing the chip three years ago when self-driving technology was less advanced. So how did the company decide how much computing power would be sufficient? “A thumb in the wind,” said Pete Bannon, the veteran chip architect leading Tesla’s project.
