Tesla to reportedly switch to Intel to power its infotainment system

Nvidia is currently an important supplier for Tesla considering it powers everything from its infotainment system to its Autopilot computer.

After signs that Tesla is moving away from the chipmaker for its Autopilot system, now a report suggests Tesla is also looking elsewhere for its infotainment system.

Bloomberg reported on its terminal that “people who asked not to be identified speaking about a private agreement” said that “Tesla’s Model 3 and new versions of its other cars will get the new Intel processing modules”.

Nvidia and Intel declined to comment on Bloomberg’s report and Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Electrek’s Take

This move would be strange for a few reasons.

First off, Intel recently bought Mobileye, Tesla’s former partner for the Autopilot program until the two had an ugly breakup last year.

It would be somewhat strange to reconnect in some ways on this level, but the chips would actually be Intel’s, not Mobileye’s, and for the infotainment system and not the Autopilot.

Tesla already uses two NVIDIA Tegra processors in the Model S and X’s Media Control Unit (MCU) and Instrument Cluster (IC). Nvidia also claimed that they are supplying chips for the Model 3.

If Bloomberg’s report is correct, which is not a certainty, Tesla is already changing the system powering the infotainment of the Model 3.

Maybe Tesla is starting to see Nvidia more as a competitor than a partner in the race to produce self-driving vehicles. The chipmaker has been making several deals with other automakers in recent months to bring the technology to market, but Intel has also been doing the same.

We published an in-depth look at the Nvidia-powered supercomputer in Tesla’s second generation Autopilot vehicles, but as we recently reported, Tesla already updated the computer with its Autopilot 2.5 hardware suite introduced last month.

What is clear is that it looks like the computing power inside Tesla’s vehicles is now being updated quickly, which wasn’t the case for the first few years after the launch of the Model S.