I suspect they've just deprioritized it for other work.
But I think that was the wrong strategic move - they should have opened it up, together with some 'Tesla AI' demo models, in a colab environment. They can hire new employees to do that - it is separate work from that involved in making the self driving car, and will not block or interfere.
The only reason I think they might not is that they don't want to step on Googles toes - there are very close links between Musk companies and Google, and a direct competitor to Googles TPU product might hurt that relationship more than it generates in revenue.
>and a direct competitor to Googles TPU product might hurt that relationship more than it generates in revenue.
There is approximately zero chance that this is a consideration.
My guess would be that, like a lot of things under the Elon Musk umbrella, what they claim they are able to do in theory diverges far from reality. We've seen similar slideshows.
If that were the case, they'd have already launched a 'demo' version with very low usage limits. Users can start building/porting their models, and then run them in a few months when the next batch of chips arrives.
But I think that was the wrong strategic move - they should have opened it up, together with some 'Tesla AI' demo models, in a colab environment. They can hire new employees to do that - it is separate work from that involved in making the self driving car, and will not block or interfere.
The only reason I think they might not is that they don't want to step on Googles toes - there are very close links between Musk companies and Google, and a direct competitor to Googles TPU product might hurt that relationship more than it generates in revenue.