DEC 28, 2018

12:00 PM EST

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sent out an email to the company’s employees asking for a few hundred more volunteers to test out the next phase of its Autopilot self-driving technology. Autopilot 3 is a marked improvement over the current Autopilot hardware since it uses Tesla’s new neural network computer, according to Musk’s email, as reported by Elecktrek. Hardware 3 is the first Tesla self-driving system that uses the company’s custom-built chip instead of Nvidia’s technology.

Tesla’s chips should be able to handle 2,000 frames per second (fps), while Nvidia’s can only manage 200 fps, according to Elecktrek.  Musk previously stated that Autopilot 3 should be available to drivers during the first half of 2019, but since it’s still in the test phase, there is no confirmed launch date. Tesla removed the ‘Full self-driving option from its website on October 19th. This means that anyone who didn’t order a vehicle with the feature yet needs to pay $8,000 USD (roughly, $10,923 CAD) to upgrade to the new self-driving platform when it becomes available. Source: Elecktrek

Read more at MobileSyrup.com: Tesla employees are testing the next phase of Autopilot