Tesla Motors Develops Semi-custom AI Chip with AMD

[btarunr]

Tesla Motors, which arguably brought electric vehicles to the luxury-mainstream, is investing big in self-driving cars. Despite its leader Elon Musk's fears and reservations on just how much one must allow artificial intelligence (AI) to develop, the company realized that a true self-driving car cannot be made without giving the car a degree of machine learning and AI, so it can learn its surroundings in real-time, and maneuver itself with some agility. To that extent, Tesla is designing its own AI processor. This SoC (system on chip) will be a semi-custom development, in collaboration with the reigning king of semi-custom chips, AMD.

AMD has with it a clear GPGPU performance advantage over NVIDIA, despite the latter's heavy investments in deep-learning. AMD is probably also banking on good pricing, greater freedom over the IP thanks to open standards, and a vast semi-custom track-record, having developed semi-custom chips with technology giants such as Sony and Microsoft. Musk confirmed that the first car in which you can simply get in, fall asleep, and wake up at your destination, will roll out within two years, hinting at a 2019 rollout. This would mean a bulk of the chip's development is done.



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[StrayKAT]

Self-driving cars...

Did anyone even ask for this? Serious question.

I especially don't see how it'd kick off in much of America. Maybe in a few places (NYC) where people identify as commuters.. and definitely in Europe.. but driving yourself is about as American as apple pie. And I, personally, barely trust anyone to drive. Let alone a machine.

 

[Xzibit]

So how good is the Tesla going to be at Mining?

 

[Rehmanpa]

Self-driving cars...

Did anyone even ask for this? Serious question.

I especially don't see how it'd kick off in much of America. Maybe in a few places (NYC) where people identify as commuters.. and definitely in Europe.. but driving yourself is about as American as apple pie. And I, personally, barely trust anyone to drive. Let alone a machine.

I agree completely with this. Also a serious question, I'm going to poise a scenario for which is (at least in my mind) a very large potential issue. Let's say I'm a commuter. I get up at 4:30 AM and I'm heading off to work. I just bought this new car, guaranteed to be 100% self driving. I tell it to drive me to work, it starts driving and I kick on the seat warmer and I fall asleep. A few minutes later I awake with a start as I feel a large bump hit the car. The car just ran over a 8 year old and his mother, both dead. Who's fault is this? Is it my fault, even though I wasn't driving, and it was the car which was guaranteed to me to be 100% self driving, or is it the car manufacturer for creating this "self driving car"? Who's going to jail for vehicular manslaughter (which is a very serious crime in America)? Not to mention if the thing kept driving, it would be hit and run. While this scenario might be extreme, if the car got into a collision with another vehicle and it was driving, who would pay the insurance bill? These are serious questions that need addressing. If it was explained to me that it was my responsibility for whatever the car did, I sure as hell wouldn't trust it to drive for me. No way am I going to jail over a computer glitch.

 

[the54thvoid]

I agree completely with this. Also a serious question, I'm going to poise a scenario for which is (at least in my mind) a very large potential issue. Let's say I'm a commuter. I get up at 4:30 AM and I'm heading off to work. I just bought this new car, guaranteed to be 100% self driving. I tell it to drive me to work, it starts driving and I kick on the seat warmer and I fall asleep. A few minutes later I awake with a start as I feel a large bump hit the car. The car just ran over a 8 year old and his mother, both dead. Who's fault is this? Is it my fault, even though I wasn't driving, and it was the car which was guaranteed to me to be 100% self driving, or is it the car manufacturer for creating this "self driving car"? Who's going to jail for vehicular manslaughter (which is a very serious crime in America)? Not to mention if the thing kept driving, it would be hit and run. While this scenario might be extreme, if the car got into a collision with another vehicle and it was driving, who would pay the insurance bill? These are serious questions that need addressing. If it was explained to me that it was my responsibility for whatever the car did, I sure as hell wouldn't trust it to drive for me. No way am I going to jail over a computer glitch.

These will be addressed by local governments. Besides, AI driven cars are safer than humans so you may find insurance cheaper. Though I doubt it.

I also imagine a rule where you are not allowed to sleep alone in an autonomous car.

 

[R-T-B]

Self-driving cars...

Did anyone even ask for this? Serious question.

I especially don't see how it'd kick off in much of America. Maybe in a few places (NYC) where people identify as commuters.. and definitely in Europe.. but driving yourself is about as American as apple pie. And I, personally, barely trust anyone to drive. Let alone a machine.

I would love it, as I am disabled and literally cannot drive.

That said, I wouldn't trust it either unless the entire road system ran on it.

 

[cucker tarlson]

So how good is the Tesla going to be at Mining?

0-100 EH/h in less than 9 seconds.

 

[StrayKAT]

I would love it, as I am disabled and literally cannot drive.

That said, I wouldn't trust it either unless the entire road system ran on it.

Ah yeah.. pardon me for not thinking of that reason. Makes sense.

To be fair, I kind of have trust issues in general

 

[StrayKAT]

These will be addressed by local governments. Besides, AI driven cars are safer than humans so you may find insurance cheaper. Though I doubt it.

I also imagine a rule where you are not allowed to sleep alone in an autonomous car.

I'd probably be dead if it wasn't for my own driving. I've gotten myself out of tight situations that I can't even think where an AI would apply or react well.

And this goes beyond just tight situations in traffic. I've peeled out in a parking lot, as a robber pulled a gun right at my window... turned 180 Starskey and Hutch style and made a break for it. I probably even impressed him, because he didn't even fire shots as I drove away. An AI couldn't do any of this.

Not yet anyway.

Back to traffic though.. I'd say it's even more important when riding bikes. There's a lot more tight situations that need human vigilance. So I hope there aren't self-driving bikes to boot.

 

[sergionography]

I agree completely with this. Also a serious question, I'm going to poise a scenario for which is (at least in my mind) a very large potential issue. Let's say I'm a commuter. I get up at 4:30 AM and I'm heading off to work. I just bought this new car, guaranteed to be 100% self driving. I tell it to drive me to work, it starts driving and I kick on the seat warmer and I fall asleep. A few minutes later I awake with a start as I feel a large bump hit the car. The car just ran over a 8 year old and his mother, both dead. Who's fault is this? Is it my fault, even though I wasn't driving, and it was the car which was guaranteed to me to be 100% self driving, or is it the car manufacturer for creating this "self driving car"? Who's going to jail for vehicular manslaughter (which is a very serious crime in America)? Not to mention if the thing kept driving, it would be hit and run. While this scenario might be extreme, if the car got into a collision with another vehicle and it was driving, who would pay the insurance bill? These are serious questions that need addressing. If it was explained to me that it was my responsibility for whatever the car did, I sure as hell wouldn't trust it to drive for me. No way am I going to jail over a computer glitch.

Obviously these cars will have sensors that detect objects and break when necessary. How well can they interpret farther objects remains to be seen. For example as humans we normally can see from a far that there r children in the area and therefore slow down in case of any unexpected kids running around pr popping outta nowhere. But to answer your questions this is made possible(legal) due to the current US president signing certain bills lol. Basically the approach being taken right now is to build those cars and put them on the street and we will figure things out as we go.

 

[silentbogo]

May not seem like much, but there are two major pieces of information that I can derive from this:
1) Tesla at least partially dropped their partnership with NVidia, which is kind of weird, because Nvidia still has a proud Drive PX2 on Tesla demo on their website.
2) AMD grew a pair to get into embedded and automotive market, which they did not want to do last year. Good for them.

Self-driving cars...

Did anyone even ask for this? Serious question.

Of course there is market for self-driving cars and people who want it.
It's not going to start with 100% self-driving cars. So far both Tesla and Mercedes have demonstrated what they did with older tech, like NV Tegra X1, and it looks impressive. Fully autonomous highway driving, parking, etc.
Almost half of the US has already passed laws and regulations allowing autonomous vehicles w/ driver present. So, even hard-headed politicians see an appeal in reducing human error on the road.
Other countries are going as far as already commercializing self-driving car services (taxi, autonomous truck deliveries etc.).

Google did a very lengthy trial on their system , and here's what they got:

Based on Google's own accident reports, their test cars have been involved in 14 collisions, of which human drivers were at fault 13 times. It was not until 2016 that the car's software caused a crash.

That's 14 minor incidents on 23 cars in almost 8 years. Only one of those was a software glitch, while the others were caused by a human.

 

[kn00tcn]

that tweet screenshot... it's fun to misinterpret it as a 2 year sleep ride

I agree completely with this. Also a serious question, I'm going to poise a scenario for which is (at least in my mind) a very large potential issue. Let's say I'm a commuter. I get up at 4:30 AM and I'm heading off to work. I just bought this new car, guaranteed to be 100% self driving. I tell it to drive me to work, it starts driving and I kick on the seat warmer and I fall asleep. A few minutes later I awake with a start as I feel a large bump hit the car. The car just ran over a 8 year old and his mother, both dead. Who's fault is this? Is it my fault, even though I wasn't driving, and it was the car which was guaranteed to me to be 100% self driving, or is it the car manufacturer for creating this "self driving car"? Who's going to jail for vehicular manslaughter (which is a very serious crime in America)? Not to mention if the thing kept driving, it would be hit and run. While this scenario might be extreme, if the car got into a collision with another vehicle and it was driving, who would pay the insurance bill? These are serious questions that need addressing. If it was explained to me that it was my responsibility for whatever the car did, I sure as hell wouldn't trust it to drive for me. No way am I going to jail over a computer glitch.

this is worded in such a way that it sounds like it's about low end chinese products, like the disaster that IoT is

dont you think someone like elon thinks about this pretty much every day? he is one to say AI can become a threat to the human species, so then why would he do the opposite & be reckless with car AI?

AI cant really replace good drivers or solve tricky situations, but there are so many bad drivers that cause problems or cant get a handle on a situation

 

[GreiverBlade]

well they had issues while using Nvidia solution, kinda logical for them to seek alternatives ...

plus it's their own chips (AMD only helps) so now, they will only be able to blame themselves if something goes wrong (what would go wrong? right? )

 

[Aquinus]

I wouldn't trust it either unless the entire road system ran on it.

This. Google's testing found that while their self-driving cars that it was often other human drivers who caused collisions, not the self driving cars.

I am disabled and literally cannot drive.

If that happened to me, I'm pretty sure that a part of me would die. Unlike most Americans I own a standard because I like driving and put extra effort into being a good driver and understanding how my vehicle works and reacts. With that said, even if you're a good driver, it's everyone else you have to watch out for. I've been hit by other people and I've literally swerved out of potential crashes that would have totaled my car. People just don't give driving the attention it deserves. All in all, I think people would drive fine if they stopped doing everything except for driving while they're driving.

 

[R-T-B]

If that happened to me, I'm pretty sure that a part of me would die.

Part of you does man... namely the part that drives.

 

[Aquinus]

Part of you does man... namely the part that drives.

Well, die in the same kind of way as if I could never use a computer ever again. Losing something you enjoy doing is never an easy pill to swallow.

 

[StrayKAT]

This. Google's testing found that while their self-driving cars that it was often other human drivers who caused collisions, not the self driving cars.

If that happened to me, I'm pretty sure that a part of me would die. Unlike most Americans I own a standard because I like driving and put extra effort into being a good driver and understanding how my vehicle works and reacts. With that said, even if you're a good driver, it's everyone else you have to watch out for. I've been hit by other people and I've literally swerved out of potential crashes that would have totaled my car. People just don't give driving the attention it deserves. All in all, I think people would drive fine if they stopped doing everything except for driving while they're driving.

You'd think the whole "flinging 2 tons of steel at 60mph" thing would be enough of a reason to pay attention... but I guess not.

 

[INSTG8R]

Well it’s an AI chip so all your concerns is what it will be figuring out faster than us I would think.

 

[jabbadap]

Hmm my only question is: if car can drive itself, can you get fine for drunk driving?

 

[AnnCore]

Self-driving cars...

Did anyone even ask for this? Serious question.

I especially don't see how it'd kick off in much of America. Maybe in a few places (NYC) where people identify as commuters.. and definitely in Europe.. but driving yourself is about as American as apple pie. And I, personally, barely trust anyone to drive. Let alone a machine.

I'm not going to say machines are 100% ready but ask yourself this, do machines get drunk or do drugs?
Do machines need the thrill of speeding? Not likely and that accounts for roughly 66% of all accidents. The other 33% is human error.

Personally I like to drive too but if I am being assisted by AI and it helps me from making a mistake while driving, then why not?

 

[AnnCore]

Hmm my only question is: if car can drive itself, can you get fine for drunk driving?

I'd say yes because you are still asked to take over the car if something the car can't manage comes up.

 

[StrayKAT]

I'm not going to say machines are 100% ready but ask yourself this, do machines get drunk or do drugs?
Do machines need the thrill of speeding? Not likely and that accounts for roughly 66% of all accidents. The other 33% is human error.

Personally I like to drive too but if I am being assisted by AI and it helps me from making a mistake while driving, then why not?

Personally, I'd rather just scare people from drunk driving with draconian laws.. But I won't get into that (and I acknowledge that even that won't dissuade some).

I expect the same amount of error here as I do with spellcheck/autofill. I'm not sure it's going to be much better.

 

[AnnCore]

I would love it, as I am disabled and literally cannot drive.

That said, I wouldn't trust it either unless the entire road system ran on it.

You are absolutely right. You need to remove the human factor for it to work best. When I was learning to drive as a teenager my father told me to consider everyone else on the road as "***holes". It wasn't personal, just a the mental state you need to stay alive when driving. TBH, I'd expect people to think the same of me while I'm driving because people are unpredictable to say the least.

 

[AnnCore]

Hey Btarunr. Don't know if it's your typo or not but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reining.

Reigning is what you were looking for.

 

[silentbogo]

Personally, I'd rather just scare people from drunk driving with draconian laws..

Like it would help. Just look at US: probably the most severe punishments for DUI in the world, and it's still #3 for DUI offences right after SAR and Canada.
Even drunken russians, finns, the entire eastern and central Europe combined can't beat that.