Last September, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a guest appearance at the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. During their conversation, it became evident that the comedian and MMA enthusiast knows very little of the experience provided by Tesla’s premium electric cars. It also became evident that Rogan was a car enthusiast, at one point mentioning that he drives his Porsche to get himself on the zone when he does stand-up comedy.
Candidly addressing Rogan’s statement, Musk stated the comedian would get an even bigger thrill if he drives a Tesla Model S P100D. The Tesla CEO also explained the advantages provided by the instant torque of electric motors when driving. Rogan, for his part, agreed, stating that he would indeed try out Tesla’s flagship full-sized sedan.
In a social media post and in a recent segment on his podcast, Joe Rogan revealed that he actually bought a Tesla Model S, as per Elon Musk’s recommendation. And just like that, Joe Rogan — a self-confessed gearhead, muscle car fan, and former electric car skeptic — became a full believer in the performance and capabilities of electric cars. Echoing his Instagram post, Rogan noted that his electric car is “without a doubt, the most preposterously quick vehicle” he has ever driven.
So quick was his Model S that Rogan admitted to putting his car on Chill Mode at times. The comedian and noted podcast host praised his vehicle’s Ludicrous Mode as well, comparing the acceleration to that of a roller coaster.
“The thrust that you get is a roller-coaster ride. It’s insane. I mean, you can’t believe how fast it is. It literally doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t seem right. It seems like it’s punching its way out of a wormhole using alien technology,” Rogan stated.
Furthermore, Rogan admitted that while he loves American muscle cars with their large, roaring engines, they simply cannot compare to his Tesla Model S. Simply put, Rogan notes that Tesla’s electric vehicles are the future.
“The car is the future. Look, I’m a giant fan of American muscle cars. They’re my all-time favorite cars. In terms of like, to drive, the rumble of the engine, I love them. Maybe I’m some crazy, old dude from the 80s and still loves 1960s muscle cars. Maybe. I don’t care. I love them. But that Tesla’s the future. When you drive it, you realize, ‘Oh, other cars are stupid,’” he said.
Tesla is quite different from the conventional car company in the way that it relies mainly on word of mouth to promote its vehicles. Over the years, it has been noted by members of the Tesla community that test drives are among the best ways to encourage someone to consider an electric car purchase. Such is pretty much what happened to longtime auto journalist Henry Payne of The Detroit News, who purchased a Long Range RWD Model 3 as his personal vehicle. So impressed was Payne by his Model 3’s performance on the road and on the track that he actually dubbed the electric sedan as The Detroit News‘ 2018 Car of the Year.
Watch Joe Rogan talk about his experiences with his Tesla Model S in the video below.
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Tesla Model S impresses Joe Rogan over ‘preposterous,’ ‘alien tech’ performance
During the recently-held fourth-quarter earnings call, Elon Musk all but stated that Tesla holds a notable lead in the self-driving field. While responding to Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster, who inquired about Morgan Stanley’s estimated $175 billion valuation for Waymo and its self-driving tech, Musk noted that Tesla actually has an advantage over other companies involved in the development of autonomous technologies, particularly when it comes to real-world miles.
“If you add everyone else up combined, they’re probably 5% — I’m being generous — of the miles that Tesla has. And this difference is increasing. A year from now, we’ll probably go — certainly from 18 months from now, we’ll probably have 1 million vehicles on the road with — that are — and every time the customers drive the car, they’re training the systems to be better. I’m just not sure how anyone competes with that,” Musk said.
To carry its self-driving systems towards full autonomy, Tesla has been developing its custom hardware. Designed by Apple alumni Pete Bannon, Tesla’s Hardware 3 upgrade is expected to provide the company’s vehicles with a 1000% improvement in processing capability compared to current hardware. Tesla has released only a few hints about HW3’s capabilities over the past months. That said, a patent application from the electric car maker has recently been published by the US Patent Office, hinting at an “Accelerated Mathematical Engine” that would most likely be utilized for Tesla’s Hardware 3.
An illustration for Tesla’s Accelerated Mathematical Engine, as depicted in a recent patent application. (Credit: US Patent Office)
In the patent’s description, Tesla notes that there is a need to develop “high-computational-throughput systems and methods that can perform matrix mathematical operations quickly and efficiently,” considering that current systems have notable limitations. These limitations become evident in computationally demanding applications, as described by Tesla in the following section.
“Computationally demanding applications, such as a convolution, oftentimes require a software function be embedded in computation unit 102 and used to convert convolution operations into alternate matrix-multiply operations. This is accomplished by rearranging and reformatting data into two matrices that then can be raw matrix-multiplied. However, there exists no mechanism to efficiently share or reuse data in scalar machine 100, such that data necessary to execute each scalar operation has to be re-stored and re-fetched from registers many times. The complexity and managerial overhead of these operations becomes significantly greater as the amount of image data subject to convolution operations increases.”
To address these limitations, Tesla’s patent application hints at the use of a custom matrix processor architecture. Tesla outlines its matrix processor architecture in the following section.
“FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary matrix processor architecture for performing arithmetic operations according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. System 200 comprises logic circuit 232 234, cache/buffer 224, data formatter 210, weight formatter 212, data input matrix 206, weight input matrix 208, matrix processor 240, output array 226, post processing units 228, and control logic 250. Matrix processor 240 comprises a plurality of sub-circuits 242 which contain Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs), registers and, in some embodiments, encoders (such as booth encoders). Logic circuit 232 may be a circuit that represents N input operators and data registers. Logic circuit 234 may be circuitry that inputs M weight operands into matrix processor 240. Logic circuit 232 may be circuitry that input image data operands into matrix processor 240. Weight input matrix 208 and data input matrix 206 may be stored in various types of memory including SRAM devices. One skilled in the art will recognize that various types of operands may be input into the matrix processor 240.”
By utilizing the system outlined in its recently published patent application, Tesla notes that its hardware would be able to support larger amounts of data. Such a setup also allows the system to be more efficient.
“Unlike common software implementations of formatting functions that are performed by a CPU or GPU to convert a convolution operation into a matrix-multiply by rearranging data to an alternate format that is suitable for a fast matrix multiplication, various hardware implementations of the present disclosure re-format data on the fly and make it available for execution, e.g., 96 pieces of data every cycle, in effect, allowing a very large number of elements of a matrix to be processed in parallel, thus efficiently mapping data to a matrix operation. In embodiments, for 2N fetched input data 2N2 compute data may be obtained in a single clock cycle. This architecture results in a meaningful improvement in processing speeds by effectively reducing the number of read or fetch operations employed in a typical processor architecture as well as providing a paralleled, efficient and synchronized process in performing a large number of mathematical operations across a plurality of data inputs.”
“In operation according to certain embodiments, system 200 accelerates convolution operations by reducing redundant operations within the systems and implementing hardware specific logic to perform certain mathematical operations across a large set of data and weights. This acceleration is a direct result of methods (and corresponding hardware components) that retrieve and input image data and weights to the matrix processor 240 as well as timing mathematical operations within the matrix processor 240 on a large scale.”
Tesla did not provide concrete updates on the development and release of Hardware 3 to the company’s fleet of vehicles during the fourth quarter earnings call. That said, Musk stated that FSD would likely be ready towards the end of 2019, though it would be up to regulators to approve the autonomous functions by then.
Back in October, Musk noted that Hardware 3 would be equipped in all new production cars in around 6 months, which translates to a rollout date of around April 2019. Musk stated that transitioning to the new hardware will not involve any changes with vehicle production, as the upgrade is simply a replacement of the Autopilot computer installed on all electric cars today. In a later tweet, Musk mentioned that Tesla owners who bought Full Self-Driving would receive the Hardware 3 upgrade free of charge. Owners who have not ordered Full Self-Driving, on the other hand, would likely pay around $5,000 for the FSD suite and the new hardware.
Tesla’s patent application for its Accelerated Mathematical Engine could be accessed here.
Tesla patent hints at Hardware 3’s ‘Accelerated Mathematical Engine’ for faster processing
When Elon Musk first announced the specs of the Tesla Model 3 Performance, he noted that the electric car would beat anything on its class inside a closed circuit. With its dual motors that produced a combined 450 hp and 471 lb-ft of torque, its 0-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds, and its top speed of 155 mph, Musk noted that the top variant of the Model 3 would cost roughly the same as a BMW M3, but be “15% quicker and with better handling.”
It should be noted that Musk mentioned the Model 3 Performance’s comparison with the BMW M3 at a time when Tesla was yet to reveal that it was developing a dedicated Track Mode for the electric sedan. With Track Mode, which optimizes the car for intensive closed circuit driving, the Model 3 Performance becomes a very formidable car on the racetrack. Over the past months, videos of the Model 3 Performance that have been shared online have mostly featured the vehicle competing in drag races or going around race tracks on its own. Rarely has there been a test of the car competing on a closed circuit against other high-performance vehicles.
That is, until recently, when Chinese auto group Know the Car (credit to Tesla community member JayinShanghai for sharing the video) opted to test the Model 3 Performance against several notable competitors. The group selected three groups of vehicles that would compete against the electric car — Chinese-made EVs, the NIO ES8 and the BYD唐DM; high-performance sedans, the BMW M3 and the Mercedes-AMG C63; and supercars, the Nissan GT-R and the Ferrari 488 GTB.
The tests were conducted at the Goldenport Park Circuit in Beijing, China in -5°C (23°F) weather. In its first test, the group opted to test the Model 3 Performance’s acceleration. Thanks to the instant torque from its dual electric motors, the electric sedan soundly dominated its competitors. After beating the competition on the straight line test, the group opted to call a professional driver to see just how well the Model 3 Performance stacked up against the six other vehicles on the track.
It should be noted that Beijing’s Goldenport Park Circuit is a location that is known to favor cornering and technical driving over high-speed, straight-line acceleration. Thus, during the tests, the Model 3 Performance, with its Track Mode enabled, was driven hard from one corner to the other. When the track times of the six vehicles were compared, it became evident that Elon Musk’s words about the electric car were accurate.
At the bottom of the rankings were the two Chinese-made EVs, which is understandable considering that the NIO ES8 and the BYD唐DM were SUVs. Immediately following the two EVs was the BMW M3, which was able to complete a lap around the track in 01:22.67. The Mercedes-AMG C 63 fared better than the M3, finishing a lap in 01:20.23. True to Elon Musk’s words, the Tesla Model 3 Performance dominated its class, with its lap time of 01:18.62.
Only two vehicles proved faster than the Model 3 Performance around the track — the Ferrari 488 GTB, which finished a lap in 01:16.31, and the Nissan GT-R, which completed a lap in 01:15.23. As noted by the group that conducted the test, the Model 3 Performance was ultimately outgunned only by vehicles that are beyond its class and its price range (credit to David Jao for the translation).
“The data doesn’t lie. China’s new electric entrants compared to the Model 3 are still far behind. The cars that we previously worshipped as high-end sedans, regretfully defeated. Only the supercars, costing 3-5 times the Model 3 remain to defend the honor of the internal combustion engine (ICE). So the appearance of the Model 3 brings forth a new kind of performance — cheaper, quieter, and even faster.”
The group’s statement about the prices of the Model 3’s rivals in the Chinese market is no exaggeration. Tesla lists the Model 3 Performance with a price of 560,000 RMB (around $81,000) for the Chinese market. While higher than its $64,000 price in the United States, the Model 3 Performance is still considerably more affordable than its rival high-performance sedans in the country. The BMW M3, for one, sells for 998,000 RMB ($162,000), while the Mercedes-AMG C 63 Coupe costs 1,198,000 RMB ($173,623). With its price in the Chinese market, Tesla all but made the Model 3 Performance as the ultimate bang-for-your-buck high-performance sedan — quicker, cleaner, and cheaper than the competition.
Watch the Tesla Model 3 Performance battle local high-performance sedans and supercars on the track in the video below.
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Tesla Model 3 Performance takes on supercars, high-performance sedans in track battle
