Tesla has reportedly partnered with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) for production of its next-generation self-driving computer chips, referred to as Hardware 4 (HW4).
Currently, Samsung provides 14-nanometer chips for Tesla’s in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system. The IVI is considered to be the core technology that can help the company achieve fully autonomous driving.
The current Hardware 3 (HW3) is sufficient for this purpose according to Tesla, but they plan to further the technology with 4 or 5 nanometer chips.
There were rumours last year that Samsung was going to be Tesla’s supplier of choice for the new chips, but new reports coming out of Asia suggest that Tesla has instead picked TSMC to produce them.
TSMC is receiving orders for vehicles, and it is rumored that it has replaced Samsung and won a large order for Tesla’s new generation of fully automatic driving assistance (FSD) chips, which will be produced at 4/5 nanometers. Tesla is expected to become one of TSMC’s top seven customers next year. (via Taiwan Economic Daily)
TSMC nor Tesla have confirmed the deal, but one of Tesla’s VPs recently attended a TSMC event.
Peter Bannon, Tesla’s vice president of Low Voltage and Silicon Engineering led the team that created the current HW3, appeared last month at the TSMC 2022 Open Innovation Platform (OPI) Ecosystem Forum where he talked about the success of their partnership with the chip-making company.
HW4 makes first appearance in Tesla source code, hinting at impending release
