With heat generation and energy draw not an issue compared to a tablet or a smartphone, I would guess Tesla will use as powerful of a chip as possible. Or it could even be a Tegra (Wayne) with a 4-core ARM Cortex-A15 that will reportedly be 10x faster than the Tegra 2. Today, that would be the Nvidia Tegra 2 based on the dual-core Arm Cortex-A9.īy the mid-2012 release of the Model S, however, it could be a Tegra 3 (Kal-El) that will be five times faster than the Tegra 2 inside the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Lenovo IdeaPad Tablets, the Motorola Xoom and others. On the internal guts: the system will run an ARM-based Nvidia Tegra CPU/GPU combo. Perhaps more important, optical imaging screens are way cheaper today than capacitive ones at sizes like 17-inches.ĭespite all of that, Tesla might still move to a capacitive touchscreen, I was told. That means users can be wearing driving gloves on the Model S screen. First, users are not required to use their bare finger (which creates an electrostatic charge detectable by a capacitive touchscreen. Optical imaging screens do have two chief advantages over capacitive screens like the iPad. It sounded like Tesla is using the latter variety. The second is a variety its makers like to call ‘optical imaging’ and which is used in modern multi-touch-enabled PCs like HP’s TouchSmart. The first is a relatively old technology that has been used in point-of-sale systems and outdoor displays. Now, there are two kinds of infrared touchscreens. Instead of the projected capacitive technology used by the latest smartphones and tablets, the screen uses infrared. The screen as of today is a multi-touch display (according to a Monday e-mail from a Tesla spokesperson). Indeed, the tennis-racket-sized screen is about 8 times larger than the 6-inch screens in most of today’s conventional 2-DIN LCD car stereos/DVD players. At about 100-plus square inches, the LCD is about 3 times larger than the 10-inch screens (about 36 square inches) of the iPad and the next-largest car display, the 2009 BMW 7-Series. Is the Model S’s 17-inch LCD-based system the future of in-car infotainment? While I think it’s extremely exciting for consumers and pushes the state-of-the-art for mobile electronics, its viability for would-be developers remains unclear. In the party tent, I spoke to several of the engineers working on the system and gleaned some details not previously reported at the Model S’s prior unveilings. I’ll focus on the Model S’s infotainment system, based around the vertical 17-inch LCD screen that takes up the entire center console ((there is another 12.3 inch LCD screen in front of the driver that will display speed, battery life remaining, etc.) It’s really cool, but to future Model S owners: Please don’t name-drop it at your next cocktail party lest you sound like Ron Burgundy mentioning his leather-bound book collection and apartment smelling of rich mahogany.Īnd while a lot of you have heard about the Model S’s peerless electric battery system, did you know it can now beat the BMW M5 and other muscle-bound Euro luxury sedans in a sprint? There was the eco-tastic choice of materials for the Model S, like the compressed banana leaf veneer for your door and dashboard. There were Tesla’s ‘trainable’ manufacturing robots, which wowed my kids but felt a little early- Skynet to me. On the latter, there was almost too much to geek out over. It pretty much hit the holy trinity of awesome-ness for me: great food and drink, hanging out with pals (a number of the dads of my kids’ school friends work at Tesla) and seeing mind-blowing tech in action. 3, with information from a Tesla Motors spokesperson) Through a connection, I visited Tesla Motors on Saturday evening during its open house for buyers of the coming Model S electric sedan.
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