I, Brian Wang, was interviewed by Herbert Ong (Brighter with Herbert) about how Tesla is creating revenue generation from all of its computer and energy products.
Elon Musk indicates that the FSD computers that are in all Tesla cars can be used to run AI models. This will enable Tesla car owners to share in the revenue of a Virtual Cloud Compute (VCC). VCC will be like a compute version of the Powerwall Virtual Power Plant. Through the Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP), homeowners receive $2.00 for every additional kWh their Powerwall delivers during an event.
In Texas, Tesla Electric members who meet the eligibility criteria will automatically become a part of the Virtual Power Plant. While participating in the Virtual Power Plant, your Powerwall will be dispatched when the grid needs support. For your participation, you will earn $10 per Powerwall on your monthly electric bill, in exchange for your Powerwall’s contribution. This $10 per Powerwall is in addition to your monthly Sellback Credits earned for energy that you send back to the grid. You do not have to compromise your energy security to participate.
Cern Basher calculates Tesla HW3 car owners could make about $400 per year participating in a VCC and to about $1000 per year using HW4.
Making $1000 per year would reduce the cost of ownership by 10-12%.
I think this could be higher value AI run on the VCC if xAI is more successful.
Provided our vehicle AI computer is able to run the model, Tesla will probably have the most amount of true usable inference compute on Earth.
Even in a robotaxi future, the cars will only be used for ~1/3 of hours/week, leaving 2/3 for distributed inference, like SETI.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2023
What if your Tesla could earn money while parked?
Elon Musk’s new idea could turn your car’s downtime into a cash machine, … or will it?
Some have suggested this might be Tesla’s next multi-billion dollar market opportunity.
How much might a Tesla owner make by allowing… pic.twitter.com/DXX3hFJXkR
— Cern Basher, CFA (@CernBasher) November 7, 2023
Tesla currently has a global fleet of 5 million cars.
Ten million cars could make about $4 billion with the VCC.
A hundred million cars by 2030 (most with more powerful and profitable HW4, HW5 and HW6 chips) could generate about $40-100 billion of revenue each year.
Tesla Making Profitable Assets for Customers
Powerwalls and Solar panel for VPP (Virtual Power Plants)
Megapacks profit for utilities with Autobidder
Cars FSD Chips making VCC (Virtual Cloud Computer)
Teslabots will provide profitable work and will also make VCC and VPP money.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
VCC really only works when you can expect an AI GPU to have downtime, which is really only going to happen with privately owned cars and robots, two applications that require local GPU compute. Robotaxi’s should be operating nearly all the time and not be idle, thus no free compute there. Factory robots also should be running all the time, so rarely have free compute. But a private car in a garage or parking lot, and a private home butler robot, do have downtime to spare. Both also provide the necessary proprietary controls and security to do distributed edge cloud in containers. In theory you might be able to do that with home computers, but the risks and heterogeneous nature of home PC’s make them poorly suited to edge GPU compute jobs even if they have the power to do it.