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The Tesla Model 3 is driving the chip industry’s transition into the post-silicon age
The winds are changing in the global chip industry, and the Tesla Model 3 may very well be one of the catalysts for the impending shift. Tesla became one of the first automakers to use silicon carbide (SiC) chips in a mass-produced vehicle. And by incorporating SiC chips into the Model 3, the American automaker ended up giving the material some momentum in the EV supply chain
Tesla’s use of silicon carbide in the Model 3 was a bold move, considering that silicon has long been the material of choice in the semiconductor industry. Since replacing germanium crystals in the 1960s, silicon has effectively ushered in a golden age of semiconductors. But today, other materials such as silicon carbide have emerged to challenge silicon for its throne.
Silicon carbide contains silicon and carbon, and with chemical bonds that are stronger than those in plain silicon, it holds the title of the world’s third-hardest substance. As noted in a Nikkei Asia report, processing silicon carbide requires advanced technology, but its stability, among its other properties, allows chipmakers to cut energy loss by more than half compared to conventional silicon wafers. SiC chips are also good at dissipating heat, paving the way for smaller inverters.
Masayoshi Yamamoto, a professor at Nagoya University in Japan, noted that these advantages are well represented in the Tesla Model 3’s design. “The Model 3 has an air resistance factor as low as a sports car’s. Scaling down inverters enabled its streamlined design,” Yamamoto said.
The runaway success of the Tesla Model 3 effectively sent shockwaves in the chip industry. And these shockwaves have started to inspire a wave of commitments on silicon carbide chips. In June alone, German chipmaker Infineon Technologies unveiled an SiC module for EV inverters. Hyundai later announced that these Infineon-made SiC chips would be used in its next-generation electric cars. The South Korean automaker added that by using Infineon’s SiC chips, its EVs could see a 5% improvement in range compared to vehicles equipped with plain silicon chips.
Kazuhide Ino, chief strategy officer at Japanese chipmaker Rohm, noted that at this stage, makers of silicon carbide chips have reached a point where they are already competing with each other. “Thus far, chipmakers have worked together to build up the silicon carbide market, but we’ve reached the stage of competing with each other,” he said.
French market research firm Yole Developpement noted in a forecast that the market for silicon carbide chips would likely grow sixfold by 2026 compared to 2020. This should make the SiC chip segment into a $4.48 billion market. A lot of this would rely on whether production costs for SiC chips could be reduced adequately, however, as SiC chips are still more expensive than conventional silicon chips today. That being said, the gap between silicon and SiC chips has been narrowing. Five years ago, SiC chips were about 10X more expensive than traditional silicon. Today, they’re only twice as expensive.
*Quotes courtesy of Nikkei Asia.
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Elon Musk
Tesla owners surpass 8 billion miles driven on FSD Supervised
Tesla shared the milestone as adoption of the system accelerates across several markets.
Tesla owners have now driven more than 8 billion miles using Full Self-Driving Supervised, as per a new update from the electric vehicle maker’s official X account.
Tesla shared the milestone as adoption of the system accelerates across several markets.
“Tesla owners have now driven >8 billion miles on FSD Supervised,” the company wrote in its post on X. Tesla also included a graphic showing FSD Supervised’s miles driven before a collision, which far exceeds that of the United States average.
The growth curve of FSD Supervised’s cumulative miles over the past five years has been notable. As noted in data shared by Tesla watcher Sawyer Merritt, annual FSD (Supervised) miles have increased from roughly 6 million in 2021 to 80 million in 2022, 670 million in 2023, 2.25 billion in 2024, and 4.25 billion in 2025. In just the first 50 days of 2026, Tesla owners logged another 1 billion miles.
At the current pace, the fleet is trending towards hitting about 10 billion FSD Supervised miles this year. The increase has been driven by Tesla’s growing vehicle fleet, periodic free trials, and expanding Robotaxi operations, among others.
Tesla also recently updated the safety data for FSD Supervised on its website, covering North America across all road types over the latest 12-month period.
As per Tesla’s figures, vehicles operating with FSD Supervised engaged recorded one major collision every 5,300,676 miles. In comparison, Teslas driven manually with Active Safety systems recorded one major collision every 2,175,763 miles, while Teslas driven manually without Active Safety recorded one major collision every 855,132 miles. The U.S. average during the same period was one major collision every 660,164 miles.
During the measured period, Tesla reported 830 total major collisions with FSD (Supervised) engaged, compared to 16,131 collisions for Teslas driven manually with Active Safety and 250 collisions for Teslas driven manually without Active Safety. Total miles logged exceeded 4.39 billion miles for FSD (Supervised) during the same timeframe.
Elon Musk
The Boring Company’s Music City Loop gains unanimous approval
After eight months of negotiations, MNAA board members voted unanimously on Feb. 18 to move forward with the project.
The Metro Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA) has approved a 40-year agreement with Elon Musk’s The Boring Company to build the Music City Loop, a tunnel system linking Nashville International Airport to downtown.
After eight months of negotiations, MNAA board members voted unanimously on Feb. 18 to move forward with the project. Under the terms, The Boring Company will pay the airport authority an annual $300,000 licensing fee for the use of roughly 933,000 square feet of airport property, with a 3% annual increase.
Over 40 years, that totals to approximately $34 million, with two optional five-year extensions that could extend the term to 50 years, as per a report from The Tennesean.
The Boring Company celebrated the Music City Loop’s approval in a post on its official X account. “The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority has unanimously (7-0) approved a Music City Loop connection/station. Thanks so much to @Fly_Nashville for the great partnership,” the tunneling startup wrote in its post.
Once operational, the Music City Loop is expected to generate a $5 fee per airport pickup and drop-off, similar to rideshare charges. Airport officials estimate more than $300 million in operational revenue over the agreement’s duration, though this projection is deemed conservative.
“This is a significant benefit to the airport authority because we’re receiving a new way for our passengers to arrive downtown at zero capital investment from us. We don’t have to fund the operations and maintenance of that. TBC, The Boring Co., will do that for us,” MNAA President and CEO Doug Kreulen said.
The project has drawn both backing and criticism. Business leaders cited economic benefits and improved mobility between downtown and the airport. “Hospitality isn’t just an amenity. It’s an economic engine,” Strategic Hospitality’s Max Goldberg said.
Opponents, including state lawmakers, raised questions about environmental impacts, worker safety, and long-term risks. Sen. Heidi Campbell said, “Safety depends on rules applied evenly without exception… You’re not just evaluating a tunnel. You’re evaluating a risk, structural risk, legal risk, reputational risk and financial risk.”
Elon Musk
Tesla announces crazy new Full Self-Driving milestone
The number of miles traveled has contextual significance for two reasons: one being the milestone itself, and another being Tesla’s continuing progress toward 10 billion miles of training data to achieve what CEO Elon Musk says will be the threshold needed to achieve unsupervised self-driving.
Tesla has announced a crazy new Full Self-Driving milestone, as it has officially confirmed drivers have surpassed over 8 billion miles traveled using the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) suite for semi-autonomous travel.
The FSD (Supervised) suite is one of the most robust on the market, and is among the safest from a data perspective available to the public.
On Wednesday, Tesla confirmed in a post on X that it has officially surpassed the 8 billion-mile mark, just a few months after reaching 7 billion cumulative miles, which was announced on December 27, 2025.
Tesla owners have now driven >8 billion miles on FSD Supervisedhttps://t.co/0d66ihRQTa pic.twitter.com/TXz9DqOQ8q
— Tesla (@Tesla) February 18, 2026
The number of miles traveled has contextual significance for two reasons: one being the milestone itself, and another being Tesla’s continuing progress toward 10 billion miles of training data to achieve what CEO Elon Musk says will be the threshold needed to achieve unsupervised self-driving.
The milestone itself is significant, especially considering Tesla has continued to gain valuable data from every mile traveled. However, the pace at which it is gathering these miles is getting faster.
Secondly, in January, Musk said the company would need “roughly 10 billion miles of training data” to achieve safe and unsupervised self-driving. “Reality has a super long tail of complexity,” Musk said.
Training data primarily means the fleet’s accumulated real-world miles that Tesla uses to train and improve its end-to-end AI models. This data captures the “long tail” — extremely rare, complex, or unpredictable situations that simulations alone cannot fully replicate at scale.
This is not the same as the total miles driven on Full Self-Driving, which is the 8 billion miles milestone that is being celebrated here.
The FSD-supervised miles contribute heavily to the training data, but the 10 billion figure is an estimate of the cumulative real-world exposure needed overall to push the system to human-level reliability.
Tesla owners surpass 8 billion miles driven on FSD Supervised
The Boring Company’s Music City Loop gains unanimous approval
