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Tesla Teardown Reveals Driver-facing Electronics Built By iPhone 6 Suppliers
Lucas123 writes: The Tesla Model S gets attention because it's an EV that can go from from 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) in 4.2 seconds and can travel 265 miles on a single charge. But, a teardown of the vehicle by IHS Technology has also revealed that Elon Musk avoided third-party design and build routes used traditionally by auto makers and spared no expense on the instrument cluster and infotainment (head unit) system, which is powered by two 1.4Ghz, quad-core NVIDIA Tegra processors. IHS called the Tesla's head unit the most sophisticated it's ever seen, with 1,000 more components than any it has previously analyzed. A bill of materials for the virtual instrument cluster and the premium media control unit is also roughly twice the cost of the highest-end infotainment unit examined by IHS.
"powered by two 3, 1.4Ghz, quad-core NVIDIA Tegra processors"
Couldn't find those details in TFA, but from (the much more readable) article at: http://recode.net/2014/10/14/w...
seems to imply that should read:
"powered by two 1.4Ghz, quad-core NVIDIA Tegra processors"
So it's expensive, but at least you get what you pay for.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
That's gonna look like you're driving around with an 8-track in there in ten years.
Oh, wait, people aren't supposed to keep cars that long any more.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Why the iPhone mention? (yeah, I know, clicks).
It's a Tegra chip, Apple doesn't use Tegra.
But I guess mentioning Asus, Sony or even Microsoft is not trendy enough.
"Two NVIDIA Tegra processor modules are at the heart of the electronic components in the Model S, which "command a sizable price tag," according to Rassweiler. Here is a look at how they work."
Um no... Nearly all of Tegra3's design wins (including 2012 Nexus 7) were due to it being cheap...
Also, how is this news? It's been known for ages that the Tesla HU used Tegra3. http://www.theinquirer.net/inq... (March 2013) - and I've seen documentation dating back as far as 2012 that Tesla was using the T3.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
... you're driving it wrong
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The head unit has more than 5,000 discrete components...
That's characteristic of small-volume production. If Tesla were making enough units, they'd have more custom ICs made to get the parts count down.
Those are for systemd.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Of course, the failure rate might be intentional. Your ithing (apple, Samsung or other) is supposed to be obsolete as soon as the new model comes out, so that you replace it. I'm guessing Tesla is taking the same approach; their market is the same set of people who buy throw-away electronics, not people who are driving trucks for 20 years.
It has nothing to do with nude photos of Natalie Portman either.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
It seems to have only it's displays by the same companies that supplies the iPhone, not the actual electronics.
For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
oh they would be happy if they could just get away with shoving two tablets (300 bucks) into the instrument cluster and calling it a day.
tegra3?yeah, that's some sizeable price tag right there. not.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Why wouldn't they just provide a simple docking station, allow the docked device access to the car speakers and stay away from building their own navigation and music players? They still think they can hold their customers up for ransom by demanding 1800$ for an integrated navigation system or 1200$ for the music player. No, just put in good speakers and allow us to bring our own devices into the car.
The lack of imagination of the auto makers is astounding. WiFi is what 15 years old? iPod is 10 years old? Why didn't they build a car with WiFi that will connect to your home, down load daily news, weather, traffic reports into the hard disk 10 years ago? After missing the boat then, now they are coming up with walled gardens of WiFi, memory storage in the car etc.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
let me guess... the car doesn't run if you unplug the radio?
I cant stand the way they integrate radios so far into a car now that you have no option to replace it should you want to. I don't care how good this system is, many people who buy the car wont want it. I should be able to swap it out for anything I want. When I replaced my fords "Microsoft Sync" radio a while back it killed my entire dash. I had to spend $200 on a translation computer to replace the bit of the radio that controlled the dash.
Seriously, there's already an industry standard for car radios, screens, audio data, remote control, everything. Do us all a favor and follow industry standard.
Nothing says luxury like simulated wood grain accents.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Not sure if this "news" is an ad for Tesla or for iPhone.
Help, please?
A 100 year old steam car can be kept running. A 70 year old Ford can be a daily driver. What will happen to an electric Tesla when the first capacitor on the control panel CPU craps out in 10 years? Will spare motherboards be available? Will you be able to drive the car when the computer controlling the battery cooler dies? Or will it become a brick? That central panel isn't the radio, it is indispensable to the operation of the vehicle! BTW I've driven a Tesla S Supersport and it is a lot of fun to drive and a worked very well.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
My Garmin Nuvi had some cool features that depended on 2G, like using Google search instead of just built-in, and also checking movies, weather, etc. It also used that to get traffic data, instead of whatever other traffic data services are available. Now the 2G wireless is going away, since the carrier won't renew the contract, so there's no more traffic data :-( But at least it's a separate GPS, so I could replace it if I wanted to. (Instead, I use the AM radio you dislike to listen to Traffic Every 10 Minutes Radio.)
When the satellite XM radio free-with-new-car subscription on my current car ran out, no problem, that just meant there was one button on the dashboard that was no longer useful; the most likely interface to become obsolete is the Bluetooth cellphone support. There'd be a lot more risk of obsolescence if I'd gotten the hopelessly-overpriced navigation/radio/etc. console only that came with the fancy trim package (which also had the bigger engine that I didn't want, and the spare tire I really did need, and pushbutton combination door lock I'd also have liked.) While I like having a remote-control door lock, which is probably already insecure, it's built in to the keys, which means I have to carry a big clunky not-waterproof key system with me instead of a probably-waterproof slightly clunky RFID key like my wife's car has or a simple key like older cars - really annoying when I'm going surfing.
Digital speedometers might be lying; analog speedometers also might be lying, especially if there's a problem with the cable, or you've put on different sized tires.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I'd expect most of them are sensors for the various battery and motor things, or components to connect the sensors safely to the other electronics (opto-isolators, etc. to keep potentially high random voltages and currents from frying the whole system.) Once you've turned the analog data into bits, even with small-volume production it'd be fairly easy to use an FPGA or programmable microcontrollers to do the rest, rather than building lots of custom discrete parts.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
No, besides disliking competition in general, auto dealers and car makers have two big reasons to try to block Tesla sales
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
*sigh* you can replace it with an aftermarket EFI system, too, instead of carbing it. Just because the part doesn't have Ford stamped on it, doesn't mean it can't work on it! You can directly swap another Ford EFI engine in. You could do any number of things other than carbing it or scrapping it. You just aren't using your imagination or you're terribly lazy. Where did the hacker culture of Slashdot go? I thought this was supposed to be the year of the Maker?
Also those that just have to have OEM parts amuse me. You fell for the hype. It's cool though, it's your money you're wasting.
Different all twisty a of in maze are you, passages little.
Cryonics - Keep cool and carry on.
Oh, right, I never owned a 90s car :-) My wife's 1985 car lasted until 2001, my 1987 van lasted until 2012 (with one engine replacement), and I never played with the digital busses on either my 2012 car or my wife's 2001 car (which IIRC only had the dumber version of OBD, not the current CAN bus.) I suppose I should try that some time. Both of those cars have the electronic speedometer with analog readout you refer to.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
You forgot to tell all us whippersnappers to get the fuck off your lawn, grandpa!
No, that is what I tell the 6 digit UIDs to do.
A device that should only need three power leads and two speaker leads per channel needs a device that is similar in price to the the head unit itself just to replace functionality that is unrelated to the device's purported function. That seems like a logical way to design a device and completely immune to criticism. I don't take issue with an adapter needed to make things like steering wheel buttons work, but everthing on both the car and the radio should continue to function with the exception of built in audio controls even without the adapter or original radio.
You left out the "vibration rich atmosphere of a car." Yeah, I've owned a few clunkers that would vibrate the cigarette lighter out of the socket, bot I'm not at all convinced that you will find any vibration in the Tesla's panel. Aren't the vibes somehow connected to the number of cylinders?