Silicon Valley 101's latest in-depth video interviewed multiple former Tesla software and hardware engineers, and shared quite a few internal stories that have rarely been made public:
🔹 Musk believed "humans only have two eyes," cut one front-facing camera, and slammed the table and cursed at people during meetings. Later, a blind spot appeared at the front of the car, so it was added back
🔹 The three-chip motherboard was already made, but one or two months before mass production it was changed back to dual-chip because it was "too expensive"
🔹 The real reason for removing radar is said to be that suppliers ran out of stock during the pandemic, not that the technology was already mature
🔹 The end-to-end overhaul reduced 300,000 lines of code to 2,000 lines
🔹 The AI5 chip project was reportedly concealed by its lead for a long time; "two more months" was said for almost a year, after which Musk fired a batch of people
🔹 The cost of the entire HW4 autonomous driving hardware is roughly equivalent to an iPad
📍 At the beginning of the video there is also an on-site test ride of the Cybercab in Austin: two seats, no steering wheel, and no pedals.
💡 The video's conclusion: 13 years later, Tesla and Waymo's two approaches still have not produced a winner. Autonomous driving has entered the second half, where what is compared is safety, cost, and scale; the technical route is no longer the key.
(Note: The internal stories come from the interviewees' personal accounts)
