Tesla’s ‘Cortex’ Supercomputer Is What Its Robotaxi Hopes Journey On

• Tesla’s “Cortex” supercomputer cluster is being inbuilt Austin, Texas, to assist autonomous automobiles and humanoid robots.
• The supercomputer will probably be powered by over 100,000 Nvidia H100 and H200 chips.
• The ability seems just like different information facilities, with thick cables and loud cooling methods.

As its lead within the electrical automobile arms race begins to wane, Tesla’s resolution for staying forward sooner or later is to concentrate on autonomous autos. However the way it supposedly goals to make automobiles drive themselves is completely different from different gamers on the market. 

It includes gathering colossal quantities of video footage from hundreds of thousands of its electrical automobiles worldwide, processing that info at AI-powered information facilities after which packaging that into software program updates earlier than sending them over-the-air with the purpose of creating Teslas drive like people. To make this a actuality, Tesla has began constructing large information facilities at its Gigafactories.

One in every of these services is being constructed on the south facet of the corporate’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. The system at this advanced known as Cortex, a “supercomputer cluster”  that can run on greater than 100,000 Nvidia H100 and H200 graphics processing items (GPUs) for video coaching of the Optimus humanoid robots and the Full-Self Driving (FSD) system.

CEO Elon Musk shared a video of Cortex this morning. Though the ability seems just like different information facilities, the entire surroundings offers off a high-tech, futuristic vibe. It is one in all our first-ever appears to be like on the supposed expertise behind the expertise. 

There seem like numerous aisles of black server racks with tightly stacked {hardware} positioned behind glass doorways and casings. Thick bundles of purple and blue cables appear to snake between the racks and there is a loud hum, probably emanating from the overhead cooling methods.

Talking of cooling, the ability has gargantuan followers on the roof, most likely the scale of an plane propeller, and even greater—Tesla is utilizing a patented cooling system for a similar. Furthermore, the Texas supercomputer will apparently require 500 megawatts of energy sooner or later. A Duke College examine mentioned a sports activities stadium can devour 5 mW of electrical energy throughout a recreation. So 500 mW might energy about 100 such stadiums directly, which highlights the power-hungry nature of AI information facilities. 

This is not Tesla’s solely supercomputer. The corporate can be constructing its “Dojo” supercomputer at its New York Gigafactory, additionally for video coaching of the AI-based FSD methods in its future EVs. The pinnacle honcho claimed early this 12 months that Tesla is investing $500 million in New York to construct out this facility, which can be producing the NACS adapters for house owners of Ford, Rivian and different manufacturers.

“5 hundred million, whereas clearly a big sum of cash, is just equal to a 10k H100 system from Nvidia,” Musk mentioned on the time. “Tesla will spend greater than that on Nvidia {hardware} this 12 months. The desk stakes for being aggressive in AI are at the least a number of billion {dollars} per 12 months at this level.” (Nonetheless, Musk’s determination to prioritize sending Nvidia chips to social media platform X—which is privately held and technically unrelated to Tesla—raised some eyebrows earlier this 12 months.) 

One other one in Memphis is already operational. It is being expanded in the meanwhile and when full it could be “probably the most highly effective AI-training cluster on the earth,” in line with Musk.

Since saying a pivot to AI and autonomy, the corporate’s passenger automobile and public charging companies have taken a again seat. Aside from the refreshed Mannequin 3 and the Cybertruck, the remainder of Tesla’s line-up is getting older quick and that is considerably mirrored in its gross sales slip. Musk needs Tesla to be a tech firm constructing robotaxis, humanoid robots and AI.

For now, Tesla’s FSD has proven numerous flaws in real-world driving circumstances and it would not fairly benefit the FSD label but. The automaker additionally hasn’t handled who or what could be liable within the occasion of a robotaxi crash, and it faces quite a few investigations—together with a U.S. Division of Justice probe—into the way it has bought this expertise to traders and the general public. 

We could get some solutions at Tesla’s robotaxi debut occasion on Oct. 10. 

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