Tesla is disbanding the team that worked on its Dojo supercomputer, ending the automaker's efforts to develop its own chips for self-driving technology. The head of Dojo is leaving the company, and the remaining team members will be transferred to other Tesla projects.
Tesla is disbanding the team that worked on its Dojo supercomputer, ending the automaker's efforts to develop its own chips for self-driving technology. The head of Dojo is leaving the company, and the remaining team members will be transferred to other Tesla projects.
Peter Bannon, who led Dojo, is leaving, and CEO Elon Musk has ordered the initiative shut down. The team recently shed about 20 employees to found its own AI startup, DensityAI, Bloomberg reports .
Project Dojo, which Musk has been promoting since 2019, was part supercomputer, part chip manufacturing. The decision to disband the team is a major shift in strategy. Musk has said that Dojo will be the foundation of Tesla’s AI plans and its drive toward fully autonomous driving, as it can “process truly massive amounts of video data.” Last year, Musk said that Tesla’s AI team would “double down” on Dojo.
Tesla now plans to increase its reliance on Nvidia, as well as other external technology partners, such as AMD for computing and Samsung for chip manufacturing.
Recall that in July, Samsung signed a $16.5 billion deal with Tesla to supply chips for next-generation AI.
