The Cybertruck and Hardware 4
When Tesla held its AI day in 2021, Elon Musk mentioned that the Tesla Cybertruck would be the first vehicle to receive Hardware 4 - Tesla's latest and greatest hardware configuration of its cameras and FSD driving system. This was about 17 months ago.
Hardware 4 will be built by Samsung. While running FSD on the Cybertruck, it is reported that it will be 1,000 times safer than a human driver. Tesla reportedly placed a huge order for its next generation of computer chips from Taiwan chip manufacturer, TSMC.
One of the questions about Hardware 4 is if it will be vision only. Elon Musk has stated that FSD will only need vision to run, however, there are reports that radar is also making a comeback. I would not be surprised to see radar introduced back in with the Cybertruck.
Tesla's Hardware 4 will also supposedly have only two front facing cameras with a fan added and adds B-Pillar cameras with a new opening and an addition of a heating element. Tesla needs to add something that will make the camera lens clear without having to clean it regularly. I get messages in my Model 3 RWD a few times a week that a camera is blocked - likely due to fogging up in the cold weather.
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1,000 Times Safer Than a Human Driver
Tesla's new cameras are expected to have a much higher resolution (5.4 megapixels compared to the current 1.2 megapixels) in addition to other improvements like LED flicker mitigation.
LED flicker mitigation is needed because camera sensors have a hard time capturing the light emitted from LED lights in a constant fashion. LED lights are used all over the place with traffic lights and stop signs and Tesla needs to be able to recognize these. This feature will help with that.
It looks like Tesla is reducing the camera count to 2 due to the greatly increased pixel density and field of view. There won't be a need for extra cameras because Hardware 4 will capture so much area.
The B-pillar changes are nice as well. Adding a heating device is very important to keep the cameras clear. The change of shape is also likely for a bigger camera area being used.
There is also speculation that a high resolution radar unit is in the works. If you combine that high resolution radar with Tesla's Hardware 4 cameras, you will have a very impressive one-two punch system.
This has a chance to be a lot safer than a human driver with the increased resolution and video capture, along with high resolution radar. If the cameras can keep clear with the heating device, I don't doubt this system will be much safer than a human. Will it get to 1,000 times safer? Time will tell.
What do you think about Tesla's Hardware 4? Will it be 1,000 times safer than a human?
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Elon mentioned that Cybertruck would be the first to receive HW4 on AI Day 2021-- nearly 515 days ago (17 months)HW4 to be built by Samsung, and while running FSD, it will be 1,000x safer than a human driver. https://t.co/cwCFdMl35b— The Cybertruck Guy (@cybrtrkguy) January 16, 2023
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Jeremy Johnson is a Tesla investor and supporter. He first invested in Tesla in 2017 after years of following Elon Musk and admiring his work ethic and intelligence. Since then, he's become a Tesla bull, covering anything about Tesla he can find, while also dabbling in other electric vehicle companies. Jeremy covers Tesla developments at Torque News. You can follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn to stay in touch and follow his Tesla news coverage on Torque News.