Part 9/13:
A core reason Tesla remains ahead is not just its software, but the speed of its inference chips—the processors that analyze sensor data and make real-time decisions. Tesla's AI4 chip is highly co-designed with its AI software teams, resulting in remarkably low latency—processing video data at a rate that enables vehicles to react almost instantaneously.
While other systems—like those from Waymo, Cruz, or Aurora—rely on additional sensors like lidar and layered software processing, Tesla's approach (bypassing the need for interpretative layers) results in faster reaction times. Tesla's method is akin to directly translating photons into control commands, bypassing complicated interpretation steps that slow down other systems.