Tesla Model S to have 17-inch infotainment console powered by Tegra; BMW using NVIDIA tech too

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Tesla is touting the world's biggest center console for its upcoming
Model S today: a titanic 17-inch touchscreen display powered by
NVIDIA's Tegra chip. Infotainment, climate control and navigation will
all be managed using the vast dashboard dominator, while NVIDIA's
hardware will also take responsibility for keeping the 12.3-inch
instrument cluster LCD updated. Considering the Model S, like the
Roadster before it, is an all-electric vehicle, you'd expect energy
efficiency to be a pretty important consideration in the choice of
infotainment system and Tesla points that out as a key advantage of
Tegra, describing it as "power-stingy." Another motor company hooking
up with NVIDIA is BMW, who promises that all of its upcoming models
for 2011 will benefit from Green Team GPUs powering their iDrive
navigation and information systems. We don't know what exact GPUs will
be used, but a "visually rich" next-gen UI is being promised,
stretching out to a 1280 x 600 resolution. You'll find both press
releases after the break.