Tesla patents method to speed up AI calculations in self-driving cars
Tesla has filed a patent for a way to make its self-driving software run faster and use less power. The method adjusts the precision of data calculations on a per-token basis, allowing the computer to switch between high and low accuracy as needed during processing.
In the filing’s own words
Embodiments include systems and methods for processing sensor data and generating operational instructions for automated devices. The automated device includes hardware (e.g., INT8 MAC units, FP32 SIMD processors) and software operations executing a machine-learning architecture having transformer architectures implementing mixed-precision quantization for ingesting and analyzing various types of sensor data. The machine-learning architecture implements a transformer that includes dynamic quantization layers that dynamically quantize tensors, per-token, for downstream operations of the transformer and machine-learning architecture.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method comprising: obtaining, by a processor, input data having a number of bits according to a first precision and including one or more tokens; determining, by the processor, a second precision as a level of precision for input to a next computation operation of a neural network architecture; for each particular token of the one or more tokens of the input data: generating, by the processor, a token scale factor based on a range of values associated with the token; and executing, by the processor, a quantization operation on the token of the input data using the token scale factor to update the token of the input data from the first precision to a quantized token having the second precision for the level of precision for the next computation operation; and generating, by the processor, output data by executing the next computation operation using each quantized token having the number of bits according to the second precision.
Facts
- Company
- Tesla (Tesla, Inc.)
- Official title
- MIXED PRECISION TRANSFORMER WITH INTEGER MULTIPLY ACCUMULATE
- Publication number
- US20260299881A1
- Application number
- 19322393
- Filed
- Sep 8, 2025
- Published
- Oct 1, 2026
- Inventors
- 4
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G06F 7/49942 Physics & computingG06N 3/0455 Physics & computingMore from Tesla in AI & software
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- Tesla patents method to speed up AI processing in self-driving cars Oct 1, 2026
Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.