Image: @JayinShanghai on Twitter
On Thursday, Tesla China delivered the first-ever Gigafactory Shanghai-made Model Y Performance to a lucky Tesla Employee in Shanghai (via @JayinShanghai).
The news comes just a couple of days after Tesla China announced it would start delivering the Model Y Performance sometime this week.
Tesla China delivered the first MIC Tesla Model Y Performance to this Lucky Tesla Employee in Shanghai.
Congratulations to 一只晖崽 (Tesla China Employee)#Tesla #TeslaChina #ModelY $TSLA @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/GQxtjNpOHN— Jay in Shanghai 电动 Jay (@JayinShanghai) November 25, 2021
According to @JayinShanghai, a keen-eyed individual has also noticed that the Media Control Unit (MCU) on the Made in China (MIC) Model Y Performance is powered by AMD Ryzen processors and AMD GPUs. Up until now, Tesla used Intel’s Atom System on a Chip (SoC) for its MCUs.
BREAKING: China Made Model Y Performance infotainment system has AMD Ryzen processors and AMD GPUs!
@伞电 spotted this in the new Model Y Performance today.#Tesla #TeslaChina #AMD @elonmusk @AMDRyzen pic.twitter.com/FgNFLnIUOz
— Jay in Shanghai 电动 Jay (@JayinShanghai) November 25, 2021
The Media Control Unit is the main computer in any Tesla vehicle, responsible for the Center Console touchscreen and almost all of the ‘smart’ features the electric cars come with.
If their consumer counterparts are anything to go by, the AMD CPU/GPU combo is a major step up from Intel’s Atom chip. In addition, having a dedicated GPU onboard instead of relying on Intel Atom’s integrated graphics will result in better graphics processing for Tesla’s infotainment unit.
Tesla and AMD partnered to use the latter’s chips in its new Model S and Model X refresh vehicles. The AMD Ryzen APU powers the infotainment systems and has up to 10 teraflops of power, similar to what’s found in a Sony PlayStation 5.
Whether the switch to AMD was a planned upgrade or a move necessitated by the ongoing chip shortage currently remains unknown.
Usually, some of the newest Tesla Model Y and Model 3 features debut first in China then trickle down into the U.S. and global supply chain. We’ll have to wait and see if U.S. Model Y vehicles will get AMD Ryzen chips.
Yesterday, Tesla announced price hikes for both the Model Y and the Model 3 in China.
