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😎🏆 AI Making History: Tesla FSD v12 switches to 100% raw video training of its driving AI (like DeepMind's Alpha Zero 🤖) instead of human coding.

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Elon Musk livestreams how Tesla's new full self driving software has taught itself how to drive a car from scratch by studying millions of hours of camera footage that came from the million plus Tesla cars driven by consumers.

Tesla Launches New $300M AI Cluster for Advanced Computation​

Aug. 29, 2023 — Tesla is poised to introduce its advanced supercomputer this week, a development highlighted by Tom’s Hardware and informed by insights from @SawyerMerritt.

Primarily tailored for artificial intelligence (AI) processes, the machine will also cater to high-performance computing (HPC) tasks. Based on the Nvidia H100 platform, it is expected to be a noteworthy addition in the industry. The system is equipped with 10,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, enabling it to potentially reach a peak performance of 340 FP64 PFLOPS for technical computing and 39.58 INT8 ExaFLOPS for AI applications. Tesla’s 340 FP64 PFLOPS is higher than 304 FP64 PFLOPS from CINECA’s Leonardo supercomputer, the fourth fastest in the world.

A significant feature of this new cluster is its focus on bolstering Tesla’s full self-driving (FSD) technology. However, with Nvidia currently facing supply limitations, Tesla’s foresight is evident. They have diversified their approach with a strategic investment in a proprietary supercomputer named Dojo, which is anticipated to work in tandem with the Nvidia H100 GPU cluster.

Credit: @SawyerMerritt/Twitter
Beyond mere hardware, the computational infrastructure is set to provide Tesla with an edge in processing vast datasets, critical for real-world AI training scenarios.

Elon Musk has alluded to the company’s long-term strategy, noting Tesla’s intent to direct substantial resources towards AI and FSD training in the subsequent years, emphasizing the pivotal role of computing in automotive advancements.
 
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Tesla FSD Beta program reaches half a billion cumulative miles​

Elon Musk puts a lot of value in Tesla’s full self-driving program, so much so that during an interview published last year, he noted that autonomous driving would be the key to the company’s value in the future. Without autonomy, Musk noted that Tesla would basically be worth nothing.

“The overwhelming focus is on solving full self-driving. That’s essential. It’s really the difference between Tesla being worth a lot of money or worth basically zero,” Musk said during an interview with EV owners from the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley group.

One could easily argue against Musk’s statement, considering that Tesla is far more than a car company. Even without self-driving, the company’s vehicles are already several cuts above their competition in tech, features, and performance. Tesla Energy, another business that’s not in any way connected to self-driving, also has the potential to become one of the company’s biggest profit drivers.

Yet despite this, there is no denying that autonomy can indeed take Tesla to new heights. And to achieve this, Tesla is building up its self-driving system on the back of real-world data gathered by its fleet. Tesla’s FSD Beta program is turning three years old, and since its beginning, it has made some solid advances. The number of vehicles that are part of the program has grown significantly as well.

As could be seen in Tesla’s Q3 2023 Update Letter, Tesla’s FSD Beta fleet has now passed the 500 million mile mark. That’s a lot of useful real-world data that can hopefully help the company achieve its ambitious target of achieving autonomy. Musk discussed this, as well as the potential of FSD V12, during the Q3 earnings call.

“Regarding Autopilot and AI, our vehicles have now driven over half a billion miles with FSD Beta, and that number is growing rapidly… We’re also seeing significant promise with FSD Version 12. This is the end-to-end AI where it’s photon count in, controls out, or really you can think of it as there’s just a large bitstream coming in and a tiny bitstream going out, impressing reality into a very small set of outputs, which is actually kind of how humans work.

“The vast majority of human data input is optics from our eyes. And so, we are like the car, photons in, controls out, with neural nets in the middle… We will continue to invest significantly in AI development as this is really the massive game changer, and success in this regard in the long term, I think, has the potential to make Tesla the most valuable company in the world by far. If you have fully autonomous cars at scale and fully autonomous humanoid robots that are truly useful, it’s not clear what the limit is,” Musk said.

One could hope that FSD V12 will really be the iteration of Tesla’s advanced driver assist system that takes the company’s autonomous driving program forward.

Check out our coverage of Tesla’s Q3 2023 Update Letter here.

Check out our Q3 earnings call Live Blog, which contains our live coverage of the event, here.
 

Tesla has begun including Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta information in some of its newer owner’s manuals across Europe, China and Australia, further suggesting that the automaker may be inching toward a release of the system beyond North America.

The FSD beta was spotted being tested in Australia and Europe by just a few vehicles earlier this year, and Tesla has been ramping up hiring for the system in China in the past few months. In addition, China debuted a smart expressway for self-driving last month, designed for the use of up to Level 4 driving automation.

On Saturday, Tesla software observer Teslascope pointed out that the automaker has been hinting at the deployment of its FSD beta beyond North America, as details about the software can now be found in newer vehicle manuals from the company in Europe, China, Australia and elsewhere.

Although Tesla has been testing the software outside of North America for years, Teslascope notes that the FSD beta will still require regulatory approval in many countries, even as U.S. officials continue to navigate how to create a regulatory framework around self-driving software.

It’s still not clear when Tesla will be rolling the FSD beta out publicly in these regions, though the addition of the system to its owner’s manuals is definitely not a bad thing.

Other sources have also claimed that Tesla’s FSD beta is set to enter the Chinese market, adding that the company is just waiting to announce the news.


In each of the owner’s manuals, Tesla notes that “Depending on market region, vehicle configuration, options purchased, and software version, your vehicle may not be equipped with Full Self Driving (Beta) (also referred to as Autosteer on City Streets), or the feature may not operate exactly as described.”

The automaker also details plans to roll the feature out to customers beyond North America gradually, as can be seen below from the manuals.

“As Full Self-Driving (Beta) deployment expands, Tesla will gradually make it available to eligible customers in select countries outside of the United States and Canada,” the automaker writes.

“Because every country contains unique infrastructure, driving behaviors, and traffic patterns that Full Self-Driving (Beta) must adapt to over time, it is essential for drivers using Full Self-Driving (Beta) in newly eligible countries to be extra attentive and overly cautious. You must be ready to take over safely at any time.”

The company also notes that its FSD beta is a “hands-on feature that requires you to pay attention to the road at all times,” rather than offering higher levels of automation that would allow the driver to stop monitoring road conditions.

Last month, Tesla’s FSD beta program reached half a billion cumulative miles driven, ahead of the company’s release of the system’s version 12 in North America, which reportedly will no longer be a beta, according to CEO Elon Musk. It’s not clear exactly when the release will take place, though it’s expected to come soon.

In what seemed to be a joke tinged with self-awareness around Tesla’s failure to stick to rollout deadlines and his many prior claims that software would be released in just two weeks, Musk last week said customers might be able to try out FSD version 12 in “about 2 weeks.”
 

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