Elon Musk Confirms Tesla Developing Custom AI Chip for Autonomous Driving

Just in case it wasn't abundantly clear yet, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that the company is indeed hard at work developing a custom processor dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI). The electric-car maker hired legendary chip architect Jim Keller in early 2016, and reports emerged in September that Tesla was making a custom chip that could potentially supplant the NVIDIA graphics processors that currently power Tesla's semi-autonomous driving system, Autopilot, in the future.

Tesla had initially declined to comment on those September reports, but as is often the case, Musk decides what Tesla does and doesn't share with the media. Musk often front-runs his communications teams with premature announcements, sometimes on social media. "Jim is developing specialized AI hardware that we think will be the best in the world," Musk reportedly said.

Elon Musk unveiling the new Roadster last month. Image source: Tesla.

Source: Fool.com