Tesla hasn’t revealed many details about its next generation self-driving computer, referred to as Hardware 4.0 (HW4.0), but if news coming out of China is accurate, the new system will see a huge leap in the quality of its cameras.
Not only are the cameras much improved, but mass production and shipment of the new units to Tesla has already begun.
The news comes from a reliable source, one of Tesla’s suppliers in China. A question was recently asked on the company’s investor platform if they will be providing their 5.0 megapixel cameras to Tesla after they switched to Tesla Vision, their camera-based approach to solving self-driving.
UPDATE: at the request of the company involved, the article has been updated to remove all references of said company.
In response a company official stated “The company’s vehicle lens business has a good momentum of development, and the HW4.0 platform vehicle lens has begun mass production and shipment.” (translated from Chinese)
Although it wasn’t specifically mentioned in the response, the lack of a denial that the cameras will be 5.0 megapixels all but confirms the specifications.
It also is in line with reports from earlier this year that Tesla had secured a deal for 5.0 megapixel cameras. It should be noted that deal was with Samsung, who later clarified they were in discussions with Tesla and that no deal had been finalized yet.
In the current configuration Tesla uses cameras with a resolution of 1280×960 or about 1.2 megapixels, so it would be a major upgrade over the current cameras.
It is still unclear which vehicles will first receive the new hardware. Initially Elon Musk said it would be the Cybertruck, but that was before production of the electric truck was delayed until mid-2023.
There have however been hints in the source code and the Tesla Parts Catalogue that it could be making an appearance soon, so it could be added to the Model S and Model X ahead of the Cybertruck’s debut.
There has also been no word on whether there will be an upgrade program, free or otherwise, for current FSD owners with HW3.0.
