Tesla’s Autopilot feature still has a ways to go before it goes massively self-driving. Luckily, the next news story in updates to the electric vehicle’s (EV’s) Autopilot feature is here.
According to a new report from the China Times as reported by electrek, Tesla and Broadcom’s joint manufacture of Tesla’s HW4.0 self-driving chip will begin production in Q4 2021. The new chip claims a major improvement in frame-per-second processing in comparison with the HW3.0 chip, by a total factor of 21.
While it likely will not be delivered in Tesla’s cars until 2022, many are still eager to see what the new chip can do. Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, has already stated that the company is working on the chip version which will come after the HW4.0, and the HW3.0 came out just as recently as April 2019.
When Earl is so happy to finally get HW3.0 installed in his car then sees a stack of boxes labeled HW4.0 while headed out the door. pic.twitter.com/lbr1BvH68q
— 16-Bit Tesla 👾🕹👾 (@16BitTesla) January 4, 2020
According to the China Times report, the HW4.0 chip will also be the core computing for all of the car’s advanced driving assistance systems, the transmission, and the vehicle’s entertainment system. The chip’s most obvious and important function, of course, is its ability to drive your Tesla for you. While reaching Level 5 of self-driving autonomy (no human interaction whatsoever) has not arrived yet on a Tesla (and it may be years away still), company CEO Elon Musk says a major rewrite of the software is coming soon.
No matter when we see the HW4.0, it’s clearly a major step in the direction of autonomous cars, and we can expect to see a lot more information about these self-driving cars over the next decade.
