Blog Report: Tesla Swapping Nvidia Chips For Intel To Power Infotainment System

Tesla is reportedly swapping the chip used for its infotainment system from Nvidia to Intel.

The report from Bloomberg quotes people familiar with the plans saying Tesla’s Model 3 and all other new vehicles will receive the Intel modules. Nvidia, Intel and Tesla declined comment to Bloomberg.

An interesting note regarding the potential partnership is that Intel completed a deal last month to acquire Mobileye, Tesla’s former supplier of the camera vision system used in its Autopilot self-driving efforts. The Tesla and Mobileye split was a bit messy, with an executive at the Mobileye accusing the automaker of “pushing the envelope in terms of safety.” But, it seems Tesla may be willing to look past its bad blood with Mobileye to leverage Intel chips.

Nvidia’s chips currently power Tesla’s Autopilot 2 system, however there has been some speculation that Tesla is working on a chip of its own design that could potentially be manufactured by another vendor.

 

[verygreen]

All other car companies are moving from that model to joining the Android Operating System in Automobiles

All? How about this: Automotive Grade Linux

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Have you got a link to that?

I think it was on Reddit and on TMC on the Model S refresh soon thread.

 

[chillaban]

Not to mention QNX and VxWorks are still trying to make plays in this space, particularly in selling hypervisor-based solutions for combining the roles of ECUs and MCUs in one using architected virtualization…


But at any rate, the most exciting thing here is that Tesla has something planned beyond the aging Tegra 2/3 setup they currently have. I don't care whether it's Intel or Nvidia or whatever else, it's not long in the tooth and will be smoother and faster for the consumer.

 

[BigD0g]

Not to mention QNX and VxWorks are still trying to make plays in this space, particularly in selling hypervisor-based solutions for combining the roles of ECUs and MCUs in one using architected virtualization…


But at any rate, the most exciting thing here is that Tesla has something planned beyond the aging Tegra 2/3 setup they currently have. I don't care whether it's Intel or Nvidia or whatever else, it's not long in the tooth and will be smoother and faster for the consumer.

Except it's a 100k to get the upgrades

 

[Kant.Ing]

Maybe the landscape screen will stream 1080p videos soon! Hooray!

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

You think when Mercedes switched from NKK to Delphi switches for their window washer controller arm switches, that it generated this kind of speculation and interest?

Going from Nvidia to Intel is about contracts, not capabilities. There's nothing that Intel offers in the custom automotive space that Nvidia can't match. If a browser gets faster, for example, its because of changes to design and/or specifications, not what company supplies it.

Doesn't Intel have some IP in vehicle automation that it purchased recently. What was it called? Uh, let me think. Oh yes, I remember now. MobilEye.

 

[chillaban]

Doesn't Intel have some IP in vehicle automation that it purchased recently. What was it called? Uh, let me think. Oh yes, I remember now. MobilEye.

Intel has also been in this market for a long long time. They were BMW’s supplier for several generations of iDrive: BMW to use Intel Atom-chips
TechInsights - Revealing the innovation others can't inside advanced technology

They’re definitely not newcomers to automotive infotainment chipsets.

 

[drewg123]

You quoted me, but I'm not sure why. You make a true point (mostly - we don't know what architecture it is, whether or not it will be an upgrade - but presumably so), but completely irrelevant to what I said? (ie. I agree with you... but it still has nothing to do with which company is providing the new updated tech)

It does matter, actually. Its an entirely different computer architecture, with a much larger, more open ecosystem. Rather than an under-powered arm, you've now got an x86 (which may also be underpowered, but hopefully far less so). If they're running linux on the thing under the hood, then they're much more inter-operable. Eg, they could run Google Chrome or something for the browser (I'm not saying that's a good idea), and 3rd parties would have a much easier time adapting plugins/extensions.

 

[chillaban]

It does matter, actually. Its an entirely different computer architecture, with a much larger, more open ecosystem. Rather than an under-powered arm, you've now got an x86 (which may also be underpowered, but hopefully far less so). If they're running linux on the thing under the hood, then they're much more inter-operable. Eg, they could run Google Chrome or something for the browser (I'm not saying that's a good idea), and 3rd parties would have a much easier time adapting plugins/extensions.

FWIW, there's absolutely nothing underpowered about ARM these days other than our impression of ARM being these passively cooled smartphone chips with restrictive thermal and battery current envelopes.

 

[stopcrazypp]

It does matter, actually. Its an entirely different computer architecture, with a much larger, more open ecosystem. Rather than an under-powered arm, you've now got an x86 (which may also be underpowered, but hopefully far less so). If they're running linux on the thing under the hood, then they're much more inter-operable. Eg, they could run Google Chrome or something for the browser (I'm not saying that's a good idea), and 3rd parties would have a much easier time adapting plugins/extensions.

I guess the question is if the libraries for Android Auto and Carplay work well with x86 vs ARM. Although those two may never come, Elon did talk about planning to do screen mirroring.

 

[drewg123]

FWIW, there's absolutely nothing underpowered about ARM these days other than our impression of ARM being these passively cooled smartphone chips with restrictive thermal and battery current envelopes.

At the high end, arm (arm64, really) is still not really competitive with x86_64, and that's what I'm most used to. And believe me, I'd like it to be. I have no love for x86 .. I miss the DEC Alpha.

But what's the infotainment system run on now? I remember it being a Tegra 3. If so, that's just pitiful, and anything more recent (arm or x86) is likely a large upgrade.

 

[BigD0g]

At the high end, arm (arm64, really) is still not really competitive with x86_64, and that's what I'm most used to. And believe me, I'd like it to be. I have no love for x86 .. I miss the DEC Alpha.

But what's the infotainment system run on now? I remember it being a Tegra 3. If so, that's just pitiful, and anything more recent (arm or x86) is likely a large upgrade.

Sadly, still Tegra 3

 

[lunitiks]

Tegra 3, correct. Instrument Cluster runs on Tegra 2

 

[chillaban]

At the high end, arm (arm64, really) is still not really competitive with x86_64, and that's what I'm most used to. And believe me, I'd like it to be. I have no love for x86 .. I miss the DEC Alpha.

But what's the infotainment system run on now? I remember it being a Tegra 3. If so, that's just pitiful, and anything more recent (arm or x86) is likely a large upgrade.

At the high end, arm64 still doesn't compete with high end x86_64, but note that's not what you're getting in any automotive-grade chipsets. You're getting either derivatives of the newer Atom generations (e.g. stemming from the C2000 days), or Broadwell-E (Xeon-D) type chips. And for those, there are starting to be arm64 designs that easily compete with them. Heck, the APE is a pretty decent example of a 6-core ARM64 setup with 2 proprietary nvidia cores that pack a respectable amount of compute power. Apple has produced some pretty impressive ARM cores too that directly compete in the performance range of Intel CPUs despite being passively cooled and on a much lower thermal envelope:
Apple's New A11 Bionic Packs One Hell of a Wallop - ExtremeTech

(though, of course, they don't supply them to anyone else. But the point stands that high performance CPU/SOC designs are not an Intel monopolized field anymore)

Intel for the last 5 years seems to have put basically all their x86 R&D onto Xeon E5/E7 type designs and loosely rebadging them down to the Core * extreme lineup.

(Not to mention let's not get into the deficiencies of Intel's graphics stack compared to what Qualcomm, Nvidia, and others offer).


The biggest problem right now with the MCU is that it's a Tegra 3, which isn't even a SoC I'd want to make a Nintendo DS out of, much less driving a 1080p screen running more or less desktop Linux…. Heck, switching to anything would be better than that. Audi has made some pretty impressive infotainment systems out of Tegra K even though that's not exactly the world's most amazing platform. Samsung's done a decent job driving very high-pixel-count smartphones using Qualcomm Snapdragon designs.

 

[chillaban]

Just for fun, googling Gordon Peak gets this page: Embedded Community : All Content - All Communities

And mentions this CPU complex in the boot logs:

Am trying to boot up the Gordon Peak board(product code:GPMRBBBCHSS3) in ELK(Emergency Linux Kernel)  mode  but it is not booting.

Below logs are showing whenever target is switched ON



abl-APL: rel.1636


CPU: BXTP-B1 [4C @ 1900MHz: premium SKU], ucode rev.1A; power-on reset

IPC config: R.<16 bytes> (10ms)

abl-APL is "Automotive BootLoader" for Apollo Lake.

The quad-core CPU shares Intel's CPU designation for the Broxton cores (which were canceled, Appollo Lake was the follow-on), which are Intel Goldmont atom-like cores: Intel Quietly Launches Apollo Lake SoC: Goldmont CPU, 6 SKUs, 6 & 10 Watts

e.g. you're not getting core i3/i5/i7 style cores with "Gordon Peak". You're getting the Silverton follow-on.

 

[bcsteeve]

Where's this assumption that it won't be Arm coming from? Did I miss something?

 

[chillaban]

Where's this assumption that it won't be Arm coming from? Did I miss something?

@verygreen (who both has extensively reverse engineered Tesla software and also has sources) teased a while back that there’s references to Gordon Peak. It corroborates with the report in the OP that Tesla is sourcing infotainment chips from intel.

It’s speculatory, but these kinds of speculations in the past have turned out true more often than not — eg Cabin facing camera, APE2.5

 

[bcsteeve]

My point isn't that it isn't going to Intel... its that Intel makes ARM processors too.

And I can't really agree that speculation turns out to be true more often than not. A year ago, just about everyone was certain that the Model 3 would have a HUD. I'd say 90% of Tesla related speculation turns out to NOT be true, but I guess it depends on the source.

 

[chillaban]

My point isn't that it isn't going to Intel... its that Intel makes ARM processors too.

And I can't really agree that speculation turns out to be true more often than not. A year ago, just about everyone was certain that the Model 3 would have a HUD. I'd say 90% of Tesla related speculation turns out to NOT be true, but I guess it depends on the source.

I was specifically referring to the speculation that derives from verygreen mentioning things he sees in code or things he is told by his sources, and things that lunitiks sees in EU regulatory mandated repair manuals….

Gordon Peak was specifically mentioned which is clearly an x86/Atom based board with enough crumbs on Google to indicate it's geared towards automotive applications...

 

[bcsteeve]

Gordon Peak was specifically mentioned which is clearly an x86/Atom based board

Is it? I guess your Google-Fu is more powerful than mine I couldn't find any reference on it whatsoever that confirms what architecture it is. I see it exists, but that's about it.

Mind you, I'm not willing to put in more than a few minutes of searching, so I'll just take your word for it.