Nvidia scraps Tesla name because of car brand

Nvidia has stopped using the Tesla name for its data center GPUs. This is apparent from changes to the website, among other things. The manufacturer would have made that decision to avoid confusion with the car brand. Nvidia has been using the name since 2007.

The Tesla brand name is no longer listed on the data center page of the Nvidia website. That was still the case a few days ago. This is visible by visiting the page via Archive.org. Products like the Tesla P100 and Tesla P40 are now simply called Nvidia P100 and Nvidia P40. Many pages on the Nvidia website have been modified, but the Tesla name still appears in URLs and documents.

When introducing the Ampere architecture last week, Nvidia did not mention the Tesla name either. The new A100 GPU is referred to as Nvidia A100, while it was expected that it would be the Tesla A100 as a successor to the Tesla V100. Nvidia has not mentioned the scrapping of the Tesla brand name itself.

Nvidia has confirmed that it has stopped using the Tesla name, according to German website Heise, to avoid confusion with the car brand. Nvidia may also use the name, the GPU card maker has a registration on the trademark and has been releasing Tesla cards since 2007. The first Tesla GPU was the Tesla C870, based on the same GPU as the GeForce 8800.

Nvidia website on May 14 and May 20, respectively.

Nvidia Tesla V100 GPU