Tesla Is Now Installing Full Self Driving Hardware 3 Upgrade In Some Cars

[Hamartia Antidote]

Here we go...the time inches closer

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/09/1...omer-upgrade-to-full-self-driving-hardware-3/

The first confirmed upgrade to Tesla’s new Full Self Driving hardware version 3 (HW3) took place today after a customer took his 2018 Tesla Model S P100DL into the Santa Barbara service center to get a new HEPA filter. After the service, Twitterer and longtime Tesla supporter Sofiaan Fraval noticed that a line on his service documents indicated that the new hardware had been installed at the appointment as well (h/t to Vincent for spotting this one).

The new hardware is a direct replacement for the Nvidia full self driving computer that Tesla used in its HW2 and HW2.5 equipped vehicles. Tesla built its own full self driving (FSD) computer after becoming dissatisfied with the generic computing options available on the market from even best-in-class providers like Nvidia.

Sofiaan went on to clarify that the HW3 upgrade was currently only being offered to Model S and X owners, but just the fact that the upgrades have started is sure to get anyone who purchased the FSD suite excited. Tesla CEO Elon Musk blasted news out on Twitter back in March that anyone who purchased FSD would get the upgrade to the new FSD computer free of charge. The new hardware brings 21 times the computing power to Tesla’s vehicles compared to the previous generation of Nvidia hardware being used.

Installing the hardware is step one. The real beast that goes unspoken with the hardware upgrade is the fact that Tesla has to rebuild its software stack for not just a completely new computer, but with redundancy on that new computing platform in mind. We saw the same stutter step backward with Tesla when it switched from the Mobileye chipsets to Nvidia’s computing hardware, and the company has said the same of the new FSD computer.


Image courtesy: Tesla

It will take some time for Tesla to fully port the solution over to the new hardware and get it up and running. The upshot is that Tesla has a lot more computing resources to work with and, as it designed and built the FSD computer and the chips that power it in-house, the ramp back up to the same capability as current HW2 computers should not take as long as the ramp from HW1 to HW2.

The new HW3 cannot yet be requested by customers for installation, as it is only being installed by eligible vehicles that come in for other service at service centers that have the new hardware and have been trained to install it. Even if you think your vehicle qualifies, you may not get the new HW3 installed at a service appointment. So don’t go crazy on Tesla’s service team, because this thing is still in limited release and they likely don’t have all the information about when it will be available and how it is being rolled out either.

The arrival of HW3 currently only impacts Tesla owners running HW2 who have purchased the FSD software stack. That’s a pretty steep financial commitment in and of itself, as it not only requires the purchase of a Tesla vehicle, but also the purchase the rather pricey Full Self Driving solution for another $6,000. It’s a bit of a sticky situation, as even at its current price, Tesla has repeatedly shared its plan to increase the price of the solution as future software releases are pushed out.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

 

[Yaseen1]

i think bugs in software is a problem and can cause accident at any time which may kill many people,software never work all the time and even Microsoft windows often fail to execute certain operations sometimes,when this self driving software is used for commercial scale it will be very difficult to maintain software quality and removing/detecting any bugs before they cause accident this problem cannot be tolerated for self driving cars as any small failure in software will lead to huge loss of life.

 

[khansaheeb]

My Prius has dynamic cruise control which means I can set a maximum speed and take my foot of the gas and the brake pedals and just steer the car with my fingers. The car automatically maintains a safe distance from the vehicles in front (not sure about motorcycles) and brakes and adjusts speeds by itself accordingly. My Prius happily accelerates and decelerates along on the highway more attentive than me on any day. It works great for 99% of the time. A few times when a van has veered in front of me from a distance of less than 5 meters I have had to intervene as it hadn't detected the vehicle in front. It was scary as I thought I was going to crash , so I am always attentive as for anything untoward. Also it is a bit frightening around bends as the car can't see around the bend and doesn't adjust speed accordingly. It has no perception of sharpness of the bends or slippery roads and will happily maintain speed around dangerous corners. The on board computer lacks the judgmental skills of driving experience and has no predictive ability and has no ability to learn from experience, i.e. it will repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

I often wonder if they can achieve so much with dynamic cruise control then self driving cars are only a few cameras and a ton of software away and it does seem feasible. Initially a skeptic I do believe autonomous cars have a future and that that Toyota's step by step progression is better than the Tesla rush for glory. I would certainly try a self driving car but would be on edge most of the first 100 miles until the on board computer and I have a good understanding. Once Toyota has the dynamic cruise control perfected I believe the next natural step they will take is for automatic steering control via sensors and GPS Navigation although we are only at the beginning of the evolutionary steps.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

i think bugs in software is a problem and can cause accident at any time which may kill many people,software never work all the time and even Microsoft windows often fail to execute certain operations sometimes,when this self driving software is used for commercial scale it will be very difficult to maintain software quality and removing/detecting any bugs before they cause accident this problem cannot be tolerated for self driving cars as any small failure in software will lead to huge loss of life.

People have died in planes.
People have died in trains
People have died in buses
People have died in cars
People have died in elevators
People have died in escalators

As long as the risk is not as high as the above everything will be fine.

 

[Yaseen1]

for human driving cars we can hold drivers responsible for accidents and car making companies reputation and face remains safe but any accident with self driving cars will hold car making company responsible and will damage their reputation and brand

People have died in planes.
People have died in trains
People have died in buses
People have died in cars
People have died in elevators
People have died in escalators

As long as the risk is not as high as the above everything will be fine.