Tesla FSD Computer (Hardware 3) Detailed for Full Self Driving & Autopilot - Autonomy Day

Pete Bannon, VP of Hardware Engineering details the Full Self-Driving Hardware (aka Hardware 3) during Tesla's Autonomy Day on April 22, 2019.

For more about the FSD Computer (Hardware 3.0):
https://www.autopilotreview.com/tesla-custom-ai-chips-hardware-3/

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For years it was rumored that Tesla might be building their own AI hardware to power their full self-driving technology after hiring several prominent chip architects, including Jim Keller from AMD (who has since left). Now Pete Bannon outlines the FSD Computer at the Tesla Autonomy Day for investors so we have the full details around the hardware specs.

Tesla launched its efforts to build the Full Self-Driving (FSD) Computer, also known as ‘Hardware 3’ (or AP3) back in early 2016 when they realized there were no other good solutions on the market. Two years later, in late 2018, the FSD Computer went into production – amazingly fast for such a project.

Previously, up until early 2019, Tesla vehicles, including the Model 3, S and X all used NVIDIA hardware to power the neural network used for Full Self-Driving (or previous Enhanced Autopilot) features, specifically the NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 AI computing platform. This was introduced in late 2016 and coined, ‘Hardware 2.0’ or AP2. There was a small update since then that some call ‘Hardware 2.5’ (AP2.5), but Tesla disputes its significance. Prior to AP2, the original ‘Hardware 1.0’ AP1 cars with first-generation Autopilot capabilities utilized the Mobileye EyeQ 3 platform.

Tesla wisely made the AP2 and AP2.5 NVIDIA computing controllers swappable for future upgrades since the chip technology is rapidly advancing, but the sensors, like cameras and radar will remain fairly stable over time. In fact, Tesla is already working on an updated FSD Computer (we’re calling ‘FSD Computer 2’) that should be released in 2021 and will be three times as powerful as the one released in 2019.

When Tesla was building the new FSD Computer, they had the following requirements:

- Had to be power efficient and less than 100W
- Could be retrofitted into AP2 and AP2.5 vehicles
- Lower part costs to allow redundancy
- Batch size of one (minimum input batch job)
- At least 50 TOPs of neural network performance
- GPU for post-processing
- Security

One important tenant of the FSD Computer, and design of the Tesla cars in general, is that they have fully redundant systems in case of system fails. The FSD Computer actually has two computers running, and is able to immediately shift to over to another if one fails. That’s in addition to redundant power supplies, steering controls throughout the car, etc.

The FSD Computer has three major sections:

- Video
- Computer
- Power

The Tesla Full Self-Driving Chip is manufactured by Samsung for Tesla in the US. It’s a 14-nanometer FinFET CMOS processor that measures 260 millimeters squared and has over 6 billion transistors. They use LPDDR4 RAM that boasts a peak bandwidth of 68 GB/s.

Overall the chip and computer was designed to be somewhat middle-of-the-road in terms of design and performance to both minimize costs and reduce power load. For example it’s using 14nm technology while newer systems use 10nm technology (something Tesla said they’ll use in FSD Computer 2 in the future).

It also has tone mapping (for things like shadows) and noise reduction. In addition, it houses the Neural Network Accelerator, of which there are two per chip running at 36 TOPS each or 72 TOPS combined.

There’s a H.265 video encoder that’s used for the backup camera, dashcam and Sentry Mode.

Security is another place where Tesla has spent a good deal of time, since obviously, having your car hacked could lead to an extremely dangerous situation. There is built-in hardware on the FSD Computer that checks to ensure that only software that is cryptologically signed by Tesla can run.

As of mid-April, all new Tesla vehicles are shipping with the FSD Computer. For those with current vehicles, looking to upgrade Elon tweeted that it may be some time for upgrades since the software must be updated to take full advantage of it.

Elon mentioned that they are working on a future FSD Computer (what we’re calling ‘FSD Computer 2’) that will be roughly three times as powerful and the current one and will use 10nm technology (vs. 14nm in the current FSD driving computer). They are about halfway through the four year development cycle on the FSD Computer 2 and it should be ready by 2021.

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