Tesla making own chip for its autonomous cars: report
21 Sep 2017
Tesla is moving closer to making its own chip for handling autonomous driving tasks in its cars.
The carmaker has received back samples of the first implementation of its processor and is now testing these, CNBC reported citing a source familiar with the matter.
According to commentators, the effort aligns with Tesla's push to be vertically integrated and cut reliance on other companies.
Tesla is partnering with AMD, according to the source, and will build on top of AMD intellectual property.
AMD shares shot up after CNBC reported that the company is working with Tesla. Shares of the stock ended the day nearly 5 per cent higher and continued to rise after hours.
Yesterday, Sanjay Jha, CEO of AMD spin-off and chip fabricator GlobalFoundries, at the company's technology conference in Santa Clara, California, mentioned Tesla as an example of companies that were working with fabricators.
GlobalFoundries, a chip fabricator, has a wafer supply agreement in place with AMD through 2020.
GlobalFoundries said in a statement that the company does not comment on customers or potential customers, and denied that Jha said the company was working directly with Tesla.
According to commentators, a more power-efficient purpose-built chip could help development of totally autonomous driving. Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised to make that capability available to consumers in 2019.
