Tesla is planning to utilize a data center in China to train its self-driving algorithm as the company continues to develop fully autonomous electric vehicles, a new report states.
The company will reportedly shift some of its data processing to the Chinese region and plans to develop a data center just two weeks after winning approval for its Full Self-Driving suite in China.
Reuters reported the story, stating two people with knowledge of the project revealed the details.
Tesla will need to work with a Chinese partner to set up the data center for the development of a more robust Full Self-Driving suite operation. According to one of the sources, Tesla has spoken to Nvidia about buying graphic processing units for the potential Chinese data processing center.
The potential use of a Chinese data center reportedly started becoming more realistic when Musk visited Premier Li Qiang in China. This meeting also helped Tesla gain tentative approval for the FSD suite in the country, something that was bullish for its development of semi-autonomous driving technology.
Tesla and China have had a robust and successful relationship since the automaker opened up its production facility near Shanghai.
Quoting Yale Zhang, Managing Director at Automotive Foresight, a Shanghai-based consultancy firm, the report said:
“China had played a key role in scaling up EV production for Tesla with the Shanghai factory. It would again serve a significant part in scaling up mass adoption of autonomous driving technologies.”
Tesla would not be the first to utilize China for data storage centers in at least a part of its business. Hyundai, Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan, and Mazda also have used China for data storage, but none of it is used for AI system training.
I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.
