Tesla Model S with 10 TFLOPs Could Double as Gaming Rig

News
By Anton Shilov
published

Tesla's latest Model S has a whopping 10 TFLOPS of computer horsepower.

Tesla
(Image credit: Tesla)

Tesla's all-new Model S not only offers a higher peak power, longer range, and faster acceleration, but in a tweet from Patrick Schur spotted by PC Gamer it is rumored that the Model S also features an infotainment system with a combined compute horsepower of around 10 FP32 TFLOPS, which is powerful enough to play Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3. But can it mine cryptocurrency like this BMW i8 with six RTX 3080 in the trunk?

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Tesla
(Image credit: Tesla)

The new car uses an all-new infotainment system that uses a computer featuring 10 presumably FP32 TFLOPS of compute power, which is comparable to that of Sony's PlayStation 5. That horsepower is presumably shared between all three displays, so one user cannot have access to all that performance. The infotainment system is still good enough to play such games as Cyberpunk 2077 as well as The Witcher 3. To make the gaming experience better, the new Tesla S features a 22-speaker, 960-Watt audio system with active noise cancelling.

What is unclear is which hardware Tesla uses for the new Model S. Historically, Tesla used SoCs designed by Nvidia, but we have no idea what SoCs power 2020 Model S's infotainment system.

The new Model S Long Range starts at $79,990, whereas the new Model S Plaid starts at $119,900. The car maker will start delivering its latest vehicles this March. 

Anton Shilov
Anton Shilov
Freelance News Writer

Anton Shilov is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

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21 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bigdragon
    All that computing power is likely locked up in the Autopilot system and related visualizations. I doubt that you'll actually be able to play PS4 or PS5 quality games on the car's computer. Some people might enjoy that feature though...especially while waiting for a charge during a trip.

    Personally, I hate the new steering wheel and the removal of the steering column stalks. Park/Drive/Neutral/Reverse selection and windshield wiper control will be very annoying and distracting. The windshield wiper controls on the 3 (and Y) are already very annoying. Looks like they'll be even worse on the new S. Otherwise, the new interior looks good and like Tesla is establishing a consistent design theme.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    bigdragon said:
    All that computing power is likely locked up in the Autopilot system and related visualizations.
    Yup, strongly suspect most of the 10TFLOPs is Tesla's semi-custom FSD 3.0 chips.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    bigdragon said:
    Some people might enjoy that feature though...especially while waiting for a charge during a trip.
    And thereby increasing the recharge time...lol
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    USAFRet said:
    And thereby increasing the recharge time...lol
    On a 200+kW super-charger, you won't notice the difference :)
    Reply
  • P.Amini
    As an engineer I love technology and all that fascinating stuff but that car lover inside me loves those pure mechanical gasoline cars. I hate to admit, but I hate electric cars and even all these electronic stuff in our cars...
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    P.Amini said:
    I hate to admit, but I hate electric cars and even all these electronic stuff in our cars...
    I don't mind cars going electric as long as 7-15kW L2 chargers become ubiquitous.

    What does bother me is how tightly integrated and proprietary everything is. With a conventional car, you can retrofit almost any part to any car as long as you have the manufacturing capability to make appropriate modifications with grinder errors relatively undone by welding and vice-versa. If you want to transplant a Tesla drive train in something else though, you need to reuse the main computer, BCM and motor because they are locked to each other, much like how Apple disables features on its products when it detects that sensors, screens and other components got swapped even if they are part swaps from another otherwise identical device - even if you are able to source parts yourself, you cannot make them work. At least not without taking them apart and transplanting some chips.
    Reply
  • xxscienceboyxx
    Hey what do you game on?
    Tesla Owners: My car.
    Reply
  • jkflipflop98
    I mean, for as much as these vehicles cost, they could come with a PS5/Xbone SeX built in.
    Reply
  • Flayed
    So you can literally play GTA while driving?
    Reply
  • jasonf2
    InvalidError said:
    I don't mind cars going electric as long as 7-15kW L2 chargers become ubiquitous.

    What does bother me is how tightly integrated and proprietary everything is. With a conventional car, you can retrofit almost any part to any car as long as you have the manufacturing capability to make appropriate modifications with grinder errors relatively undone by welding and vice-versa. If you want to transplant a Tesla drive train in something else though, you need to reuse the main computer, BCM and motor because they are locked to each other, much like how Apple disables features on its products when it detects that sensors, screens and other components got swapped even if they are part swaps from another otherwise identical device - even if you are able to source parts yourself, you cannot make them work. At least not without taking them apart and transplanting some chips.
    What you are describing is mainly because of the manufacturers in the game right now. With GM now committed to a 2035 timeline and all of the other majors starting to roll out products it is only a matter of time before the components start to OEM stabilize. Tesla has a technology lead because off the shelf really isn't "good enough" yet. When a significant output from the other manufactures start rolling out shared components will fuel the aftermarket game and it probably won't be much different from todays ICE machines. The exception being because of the torque characteristics and mechanical simplicity of the electric motor an all electric has the potential to be a significantly more elegant drivetrain. That being said upgrading a single performance component as a tuner is not likely to be an option because there won't be a lot to change.
    Reply