Month: July 2016

A stripped down Model S. Tesla batteries will be made at a factory site outside of Reno.

Although the Gigafactory—a $5 billion battery factory built by Tesla and Panasonic in northern Nevada—is only 14 percent complete, by all accounts it is enormous. Speaking to a handful of press on the grounds of the new facility, which began to pump out Powerwall batteries earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Tesla CTO J.B. Straubel, and Panasonic Executive Vice President Yoshihiko Yamada addressed new accelerated goals for auto and storage battery production.

Notably, Musk claimed that Tesla and Panasonic could potentially triple the projected battery output for the factory, delivering up to 150 gigawatt hours of storage per year by 2020. According to Fortune, Straubel told the audience that Tesla is hoping to deliver 35 gigawatt hours of auto and stationary batteries by 2018. The Tesla executives said their confidence in the increased battery production volume stems from logistical changes made to the layout of the Gigafactory.

"The factory itself is a product," Musk told USA Today. "It's the machine that builds the machines and demands more problem solving than the product it makes."

Mobileye Co-founder, CTO and Chairman Amnon Shashua speaks at a Volkswagen press event at CES 2016. (credit: Getty Images | David Becker)

If you're a carmaker looking to give your vehicles some computer vision, your first port of call is probably the Israeli company Mobileye. As we detailed recently, Mobileye's EyeQ system-on-a-chip can be found inside most semi-autonomous cars on our roads, Tesla included. In fact, Mobileye CTO Amnon Shashua gave a lengthy technical presentation at CES in January on how Mobileye's use of deep neural networks enable Tesla's Autopilot functions. (Here's a deep dive into the tech over at WCCFTech.) But on Tuesday, Shashua announced during a Q2 financial results conference call that the relationship between the two companies will end.

In a statement to Ars, Mobileye said that its work with Tesla will not extend past the EyeQ3, the current system-on-a-chip found in Autopilot-capable Model S and Model X electric vehicles. Mobileye will continue to support current vehicles, including software fixes for crash avoidance and auto-steering.

"Nevertheless, in our view, moving toward more advanced autonomy is a paradigm shift both in terms of function complexity and the need to ensure an extremely high level of safety," the company wrote. "There is much at stake here, to Mobileye’s reputation and to the industry at large.  Mobileye believes that achieving this objective requires partnerships that go beyond the typical OEM / supplier relationship, such as our recently announced collaboration with BMW and Intel.  Mobileye will continue to pursue similar such relationships."