Tesla Model X, Model S Will Carry HW2 Self-Driving Tech; Autopilot Suite Includes 8 Cameras, Better Ultrasonic, NVIDIA GPU Titan
ByTesla Model S and Model X vehicles with the new Autopilot and self-driving capable hardware, also known as 'Hardware 2' or 'HW2,' are currently under production in Fremont since Tesla's announcement in October. The said vehicles will sport a new hardware suite that will support image processing and safety features.
According to Electrek, Tesla's new Autopilot hardware suite is equipped with 8 cameras, 1 radar, ultrasonic sensors and a new Nvidia GPU Titan supercomputer to support its 'Tesla Vision' end-to-end image processing software and neural net.
The company announced its second generation autonomous driving hardware and confirmed that the units are placed in assembly line. CEO Elon Musk explained that the company significantly changed its hardware suite from what it previously manufactured, skipping the Autopilot 2.0 level 4 version hardware suite and jumped to 360 camera coverage for level 5 autonomy.
Gearing the self-driving cars with 8 cameras was made properly concealed by the Tesla maker by stashing the two cameras on front fenders inside the Tesla emblems. Through the photos that surfaced online, it can be determined that the cameras on the side are in the pillar between the front and rear seats on the sides of the car. The front of the car carries a camera system placed behind the rearview mirror and the back of the car gets one in a similar location in the back window.
In an official statement, Tesla addressed the technology being created for its self-driving cars, a hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver.
The blog says: "Self-driving vehicles will play a crucial role in improving transportation safety and accelerating the world's transition to a sustainable future. Full autonomy will enable a Tesla to be substantially safer than a human driver, lower the financial cost of transportation for those who own a car and provide low-cost on-demand mobility for those who do not."
With the new hardware suite already integrated in the Tesla cars, the first new "Enhanced Autopilot" features should start to be pushed to owners via software updates in December, according to CEO Musk.
