Elon Musk Calls for More Employees to Test New Tesla Neural Net Autopilot

As with any major breakthrough in the field of computers, the best testers are those who have helped create it. Working on this assumption, and building on a philosophy implemented earlier this year, Tesla will be asking more of its own employees to test the hardware on the company built cars.

According to Electrek, citing an internal email sent to employees by Elon Musk, the tests need more volunteers than already involved in the program. A few hundred more, for that matter.

“Tesla needs a few hundred more internal participants in the full self-driving program, which is about to accelerate significantly with the introduction of the Tesla-designed neural net computer (known internally as Hardware 3). This has over 1000% more capability than HW2!”Musk requested in the said email.

Those willing to take on the challenge and participate will be spared the $8,000 cost of the Full Self-Driving suite (FSD) that underpins the system. Musk warns that the offer is only available on a first to purchase basis and only for as long as more participants are needed.

“This is the last time the offer will be made.” the head of the company warned.

This third generation of the hardware is set to be deployed over the course of next year. It is supposed to be a major evolution of an already successful product, one that would add anywhere between 500 – 2000 percent more operations per second and bring the cars one step closer to full autonomy.

As per Musk’s claims, the new hardware will be available on both new cars and old ones, as a retrofit, provided they are equipped with FSD, meaning vehicles produced after October 2016.