Japanese engineer disassembles Tesla Model 3 and exclaims: core chip is 6 years ahead of its peers

Latest update time：2021-08-31 07:05

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Source: The content is compiled by Yuezhi.com from "Nikkei", thank you.

Tesla has been in turmoil recently.

Previously, Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. was interviewed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology due to assembly issues. Simply put, many car owners found that Tesla's domestically produced Model 3 was equipped with HW2.5 chip, not the HW3.0 (Hardware 3.0, autonomous driving hardware 3.0) chip marked on the vehicle's environmental protection list.

This move of "substituting a cat for a prince" caused a wave of Tesla fans turning against them, but putting aside the attitude issue, it also shows that Tesla chips are irreplaceable in the minds of consumers, and is the true value of Tesla cars.

This has caused other automakers to express strong envy and hatred. In order to get a deeper understanding of Tesla, an engineer from a major Japanese automaker even dismantled a Tesla Model 3 and conducted a comprehensive investigation.

Afterwards, the Toyota engineer expressed despair that Tesla was six years ahead of its competitors in terms of technology, and he also expressed self-doubt: "We are far from being able to achieve this level."

The engineer also recorded the whole process of disassembling a Tesla car on his blog. As the saying goes, knowing yourself and the enemy is the key to victory. Follow this engineer and uncover the magic of Tesla chips.

AI chips play a major role and are the key to leading by 6 years

In the automotive field, Toyota and Volkswagen sell more than 10 million vehicles each year. According to statistics in March 2019, Toyota's annual revenue reached 272,550.87 million US dollars, which can be said to be a leader in the automotive field. In contrast, in 2019, Tesla's operating income was 24.578 billion US dollars, of which the automotive business revenue was 23.047 billion US dollars.

Although Tesla is still behind Toyota in terms of annual revenue, it is far ahead of the industry in terms of electronic technology and can be said to be a well-deserved giant.

Among them, Tesla Model 3 set a new record in deliveries last year, with a year-on-year increase of 106.5%. Judging from user feedback, the Model 3, with a starting price of about US$33,000, can be said to be the most affordable car in the American automaker's all-electric product line.

This time, Nikkei Business Publishing's teardown also targeted Tesla's "star car". From the teardown results, the most prominent part is Tesla's integrated central control unit, the "full self-driving computer". This little thing called Hardware 3 is Tesla's biggest weapon in the fiercely competitive and rapidly developing electric vehicle market.

Hardware 3 consists of two custom 260 square millimeter custom AI chips. The module was officially announced last spring and was immediately installed in all new Model 3, Model S and Model X. Tesla developed the chip in-house and designed specialized software to complement the hardware. The computer is able to power the car's self-driving features and its advanced in-car "infotainment" system.

The Model 3's "Full Self-Driving Computer" consists of two boards: one with a custom AI chip for autonomous driving, and the other a media control unit for the "infotainment" system. A water-cooled radiator is installed between the two boards. Image credit: Nikkei xTech

This electronic platform, with powerful computers at its core, is key to handling the heavy data loads of smarter self-driving cars in the future. Industry insiders have predicted that such technology will be common as early as around 2025. This means that Tesla is already six years ahead of its competitors, and the implications for the wider automotive industry are huge, even terrifying.

Tesla built this digital nerve center through a series of upgrades to its original Autopilot system, which it introduced in 2014. Hardware 1 was a driver-assistance system that allowed the car to follow others and steer into lanes automatically, mostly on highways. Every two or three years, Tesla would further refine the system, eventually leading to a full self-driving computer.

It’s time to disrupt the existing business model and supply chain

Considering the huge financial resources and huge talent pool of Toyota or Volkswagen, Toyota or Volkswagen should be able to achieve the same degree in this matter before 2025. However, the Japanese engineer admitted that the technical obstacles are not the reason for the technological time difference, but "we can't do it."

So what is the real reason for technological time lag?

Automakers worry that computer systems like Tesla's will obsolete the parts supply chains they have cultivated over decades, the engineer said. Such a system would drastically reduce the number of electronic control units, or ECUs, in cars, a matter of life and death for the suppliers and their employees who rely on those components.

As a result, large automakers are obliged to continue using complex networks of dozens of ECUs, of which only a handful are found in the Model 3. In other words, the supply chain that powers the automotive giants has begun to hinder the industry’s ability to innovate further.

On the other hand, a young company like Tesla is not tied to suppliers and is free to seek the best technology. This teardown, in a sense, highlights this point.

The staff also found that most of the parts inside the Model 3 do not bear the supplier's name, but the classic Tesla logo, including the substrate inside the ECU. This shows that Tesla maintains strict control over the development of almost all key technologies of the car.

With this hardware, Tesla can update the software "over the air." For now, these vehicles are still classified as Level 2 or "partially autonomous" vehicles. But Musk stressed that they have all the necessary components for full self-driving, including "computer systems and other parts."

Tesla has been bringing more development tasks in-house, from software to electric drive systems. If the strategy is successful, then competitors will have no choice but to follow suit, disrupting their original business models and supply chains as they try to overcome Tesla's lead.

Related reports:

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Automobiles/Tesla-teardown-finds-electronics-6-years-ahead-of-Toyota-and-VW2

https://www.fastcompany.com/90475309/elon-musk-i-hope-im-not-dead-by-the-time-people-go-to-mars

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