Tesla vice president of global software engineering: research and development opens Plaid mode

"Tesla has been challenging tradition, challenging the inherent thinking of the industry and challenging its comfort zone." ... this is really difficult, but as long as it pushes itself to constantly break through the border, there is nothing that cannot be achieved. "

On March 16, David Lau, vice president of global software engineering of Tesla, came to China to share dry goods with many media around the theme of "Let software research and development start Plaid mode". The media in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and other places also participated in the online connection, and conducted in-depth exchanges around topics such as "How Tesla trains top engineers", "How Tesla maintains Plaid speed in software research and development" and "Intelligent strength of new Model S/X". ?

Elon musk, CEO of Tesla, once said in a tweet that the only thing that surpasses ludicrous is plaid, and only the Plaid mode can surpass the furious mode. In Tesla, "Plaid" not only represents the "accelerated performance" model, but also represents the engineer culture of persistent pursuit of subversive innovation and breakthrough and Tesla's excellent software and hardware strength.

? Cultivate talents with "engineer culture" and promote the "secret big plan" to accelerate its landing?

Musk once said that the best patent protection is a company's ability to attract and motivate the most talented engineers in the world. "Open patents will only enhance Tesla's status. Technological leadership does not depend on patents, but on the company's ability to attract and mobilize talents."

It is understood that in the survey and statistics of engineering students in North America by consulting firm Universum, Tesla has become "the most attractive automobile company for American engineering students" and ranked first in the list of companies that engineering students want to go to most in 2020.

"When making a career decision, the most important thing is to know how to join the best team and make achievements in it. In a good team, everyone can be empowered, you can learn from it and grow together, and the future career path will be smoother and smoother, "David said. "Another point is to be brave in innovation and challenge ourselves, which is also one of the characteristics of our team."

David said that one of Tesla's goals is to make the best products and fully follow the "first principle" way of thinking, which is also difficult for other companies to follow.

At Tesla, the team has a persistent pursuit of disruptive innovation and breakthrough. For example, the topics we discuss every day are "how to reduce the wiring harness and weight to simplify the design", "how to improve the performance of the display screen while reducing the cost" and "how to strengthen the technical security protection network" and so on. To continuously create an engineer atmosphere and attract a large number of industry giants to gather in Tesla, it is precisely to achieve a common goal-to accelerate the transformation of the world to sustainable energy.

With the publication of the third chapter of Musk's "Secret Grand Plan", software engineering represented by engineer culture has attracted much attention from the outside world. David said, "We have done a lot of things behind the scenes to achieve the efficiency, cost control and extreme speed needed for the next stage of growth and the' secret grand plan'." ?

A new model S/X for hard-core products: using a large screen to control the "strongest surface"

As Musk once shared on social platforms, Tesla will never have an "ultimate form". At the product level, Tesla is building phenomenal intelligent electric products at a faster speed and accelerating the transformation of the entire automobile industry. ?

At the communication meeting, many media showed great interest in two new products, Model S Plaid and Model X Plaid, which will be delivered in Chinese mainland. David said that the innovation of the new model S/X Plaid is hard to enumerate. "What excites me most is that our vehicles can take care of everything. It is not only a comfortable family car, but also a powerful car. We have made improvements in software control, hardware design, power system, etc., which makes the new car have better performance, and our in-car entertainment system also brings users a better car experience. "

In the "family car" travel scene, the "car game system" equipped with the new Model S and Model X is particularly interesting. It has a processor with floating-point computing capacity of up to 65,438+00 trillion times per second, which is equivalent to the latest game console on the market. "In the past, everyone played games on desktop computers. Now, as long as you have time, you can play games anywhere, such as when charging a car. " David also added that the audio and video functions of these two models are also necessary. "Watching movies and playing games in the car, you will be surprised by this immersive experience. You will find that the car stereo is even better than the advanced stereo system in the living room. "

In the definition of "super performance car", strong software strength is more important. From battery control to vehicles, to chassis, suspension and steering wheel, many parts of vehicles can be powered by software systems. David said: "I like our track mode very much." It can customize the performance of the vehicle by software, control the power distribution of the front axle and the rear axle by sliding and twisting on the operation screen, and also change the torque of the motor. There are many other settings and adjustments to achieve different degrees of drift. "

Software defines cars, and China team customizes products for local users?

David Lau said: "Many people think that the vehicle itself is a completely independent system, but in the view of Tesla software team, the vehicle software system is only part of a huge software system. "The realization of a large number of in-vehicle software functions needs to consider the network and service system. We hope to feedback the corresponding functions in time according to the customer's real-time driving experience and continuously optimize the user experience. "

OTA (Over-the-Air Software Upgrade), as the operating carrier behind the in-vehicle system, has become a key technology to promote automobile innovation, and can provide fresh and practical in-vehicle functions in time according to users' needs. David said, "Tesla broke the traditional iterative mode of fuel vehicles, and OTA made the car more like a constantly improving intelligent terminal."

Regarding the core competitiveness of Tesla OTA, David also gave a brief introduction on the spot. For example, Tesla can improve software technology through user feedback to improve vehicle driving performance. At the same time, Tesla's OTA technology can also cover mobile phones and travel servers to achieve a comprehensive upgrade of travel services. "What we have to do is to develop functions that users have never imagined."

It is understood that as early as 20 12 years after David Lau joined Tesla, Tesla already had the ability to improve the vehicle controller through OTA air upgrade. At that time, other manufacturers could only update the entertainment system at most. Once the Model S equipped with OTA technology appeared, consumers witnessed the real strength of "software-driven hardware"-human-computer interaction, driving performance, power battery management and so on. After more than ten years of development, the functional performance of Tesla vehicles upgraded by OTA has been regarded as the industry benchmark by other manufacturers.

Not only cars, Tesla's OTA can also help supporting equipment and travel services: Tesla's remote intelligent service can help quickly diagnose car problems; In terms of charging, the third-generation household charging pile supports automatic software upgrade, which improves troubleshooting and charging efficiency.

Tesla Shanghai R&D Innovation Center is also continuing to carry out more original development work around the whole vehicle and charging equipment. During the Spring Festival just past the Year of the Rabbit, Tesla gave China users an upgrade package through OTA update, including more than ten practical functions such as WeChat applet, Apple Music, customized Spring Festival light show, handwriting input method, track mode and so on. This makes car owners sigh: this wave of OTA is value-for-money and very grounded.

David said: "We have established a team in China, including the Shanghai R&D Innovation Center, to ensure that we can customize products for the China market, and finally let our customized products for China users lead the world."

At the event site, David also shared Tesla's design concept of "safety is the basic line". "We extend the safety concept to every corner of the company, so that everyone in the company understands that safety is our basic route, and every engineer is responsible for the safety of the final vehicle products". At the same time, David said that Tesla participates in the "Computer Security Competition" every year and invites top security researchers in the industry to test the system. "If they find system vulnerabilities, they will be rewarded accordingly." This aspect can reflect Tesla's full confidence in products and performance, and also hopes to further consolidate the performance of products with the innovative ideas provided by top experts in the industry.

This article comes from Zhao Chunchun, the author of Che Yi, and the copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprint. The content only represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with the car reform.