Tesla teases future products using artificial intelligence not related to its electric vehicle fleet

In the invite to its AI Day, Tesla is teasing the use of artificial intelligence beyond its electric vehicle fleet.

What do you think they’re talking about?

As we have reported over the last week, Tesla is preparing for its upcoming AI Day on August 19.

Over the last few years, Tesla started holding events, not really to unveil new products, but to present new technologies that it has been working on in certain fields.

For example, it held a Tesla Autonomy Day in 2019 and a Tesla Battery Day last year.

Tesla AI Day is expected to be similar, and CEO Elon Musk said that they will discuss advancements in both AI hardware and software, specifically with the automaker’s new Dojo supercomputer and its neural nets.

Now Tesla has sent out invites to the event and confirmed presentations regarding those technologies, but the most interesting part is that Tesla teased an “inside look” at Tesla’s use of AI in things other than vehicles:

This invite-only event will feature a keynote by Elon, hardware and software demos from Tesla engineers, test rides in Model S Plaid, and more. Attendees will be among the first to see our latest developments in supercomputing and neural network training. They will also get an inside look at what’s next for AI at Tesla beyond our vehicle fleet.

Musk has often hyped Tesla’s AI team as one of the best in the world, but it has always been mostly about the automaker’s self-driving effort.

The automaker has been known to also use AI in non-consumer products, like in its energy software Autobidder, and the automaker has also been extensively using AI in manufacturing.

Gavin Hall, Tesla staff machine learning and controls engineer, describes his work integrating AI in Tesla Gigafactories:

At the Tesla Gigafactory, I develop the supervisory machine learning algorithms used in automated computer vision tasks and the real-time control optimization strategies of factory systems with respect to energy costs, setpoint errors, and equipment downtime.

Our machine vision solutions use deep learning via convolutional neural network variants for classification, detection and segmentation, while our control system cloud architecture combines AI, big data, control theory, and industrial control by leveraging Python to use continuous deep reinforcement learning, model predictive control, state estimation, and recurrent supervised learning models to forecast loads and plan the optimal sequence of control actions sent to PLCs.

That may or may not be what Tesla is hinting at, but we won’t know until August 19.

Electrek’s Take

That’s interesting. It could be some backend applications, but for some reason, I think it could also be related to new consumer products.

When you think about it, if Tesla can truly solve self-driving, it is safe to assume that some of these computer vision developments would apply to other products.

It’s interesting that Tesla is apparently partnering with roboticist Dennis Hong, which could be part of what the automaker is talking about here.

Hong is known for working on humanoid robots, so it would be quite surprising for Tesla to get into that space at this point.

But it wouldn’t be shocking to see Tesla working on some kinds of new robots. Maybe we’ll finally see the Tesla robot snake charger?

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.