Tesla Is Working On “The Best AI Chips” In The World

Besides his bold ambition to get Tesla cars to Level 5 autonomy in two years, Elon Musk is devising a plan to produce the best AI custom chips in the world #hardwaremagic

Musk never does things by halves – this year’s SpaceX records are a proof of it. So, when it comes to innovative hardware that could improve performance of their self-driving technology, the CEO is more than excited to invest time in resources in it. In fact, according to The Register and CNBC, Musk and Tesla are already working on making their own AI chips.

At NIPS, the machine learning conference, Musk stated that they were “developing specialized AI hardware that we think will be the best in the world.” Whether that will happen or not, it remains to be seen. What is certain is that the CEO will bring his A game in this area as well: “I wanted to make it clear that Tesla is serious about AI, both on the software and hardware fronts. […] We are developing custom AI hardware chips”.

Jim Keller, an industry veteran with previous experience at AMD and Apple, and who now holds the position of vice president of Autopilot Hardware Engineering, is expected to lead the project. When the custom chip will be ready, the unit will replace Nvidia’s graphics cards, currently used to power the autonomous tech.

As Google, Apple, Huawei and other companies that have developed specialized chips before them, Tesla will gain the benefit of making hardware that responds to their exact needs. Moreover, they’ll no longer need to depend on manufacturers’ stock and imposed costs.