In the automotive industry, the transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles is paving the way for software-defined vehicles. However, robust silicon support is an essential foundation to drive this change. The sector is emerging as a melting pot of innovation, and chipmakers feel they can take advantage of new opportunities.
Semiconductor companies such as NXP Semiconductors, Texas Instruments, and Intel all announced new chips designed specifically for automobiles at CES 2024. Additionally, fabless semiconductor companies such as NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and AMD are also making significant strides in this space.
Intel chips are in more than 50 million cars worldwide, and the company now wants to help car companies run AI models in their cars. Qualcomm, on the other hand, wants to diversify its revenue sources by focusing on automobiles and reducing its dependence on the smartphone market.
The San Diego-based company plans to make nearly $4 billion from its auto division by 2026.
Chipmakers want to power not only today’s cars but also the next generation of electric vehicles (EVs). Hybrid and electric vehicles are becoming increasingly software-defined, so semiconductor content has increased significantly. From engine control units (ECUs) to advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), advanced semiconductor chips are required.
Additionally, many automotive companies are considering deploying AI models to the edge, meaning they run locally in the car to support a variety of functions. This once again emphasizes the need for specialized chips tailored to meet these specific requirements.
Automotive AI chip
At CES 2024, Intel announced a new system-on-chip (SoC) designed to enhance the generative AI capabilities of next-generation vehicles.
“We are bringing AI PCs to cars,” Jack West, vice president and general manager of Intel Automotive, told reporters at a recent conference. He revealed that Chinese EV company Zeekr will be the first to use Intel’s AI system on a chip to improve the cockpit experience in cars.
Intel’s GPU competitor, NVIDIA, is also making strides in this space, announcing AI chips that can integrate a variety of in-vehicle technologies, from self-driving features and driver monitoring systems to enabling in-car activities such as Netflix streaming. are doing. back seat. The chip, dubbed Drive Thor, is expected to go into mass production in 2025.
Sima.ai is a startup that has developed the industry’s first purpose-built, software-centric Machine Learning System on a Chip (MLSoC) platform and supplies it to the world’s leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). . The startup claims that the performance of its chips is significantly better than his NVIDIA.
“Everyone is talking about LLMs today, but the next shift in the industry will be large-scale multimodal models (LMMs), and because that’s the closest thing to what we have. , I think it will become a pervasive architecture that will impact everything “born by imitating human capabilities,” said Krishna Rangasay, Founder and CEO of Sima.ai. Told. target.
Last year, we saw car companies like Mercedes integrate ChatGPT, a popular chatbot developed by OpenAI, into their MBUX infotainment systems. Approximately 900,000 U.S. owners of models that use MBUX may participate in the beta program.
At CES 2024, German car company Volkswagen announced that it will integrate ChatGPT into its infotainment system. In the future, more and more car companies will consider equipping their infotainment systems with advanced LLM.
However, even from an infotainment perspective, AI models require specialized chips to run efficiently, and chipmakers are looking to fill that gap.
Silicon Powering ADAS
Furthermore, Rangasaee believes that the future of ADAS will be entirely based on AI/ML. Today’s automotive companies are already investing heavily in the development of ADAS technology, which plays an important role in improving road safety by preventing accidents and reducing the severity of collisions.
Cars with AI at the edge can perform complex calculations on-board, contributing to a safer, more responsive, and personalized driving experience.
Texas Instruments, a global semiconductor company that designs, manufactures, tests and sells analog and embedded processing chips, announced at CES 2024 three chips specifically designed to power next-generation vehicles. .
One of the chips, which Texas Instruments calls AWR2544, is designed to enable higher levels of autonomy by improving sensor fusion and decision-making in ADAS.
Mark Ng, general manager of hybrid and electric vehicles at Texas Instruments, said the semiconductor company will not only power the next generation of EVs, but also help the industry move toward higher levels of autonomy, such as L3. The company says it is rapidly innovating in this area to support progress. , L4, L5.
In a recent exchange, target On the sidelines of CES 2024, Ng said Texas Instruments, one of the world’s top 10 semiconductor companies by revenue, is bringing its innovations to top original equipment manufacturers in the US, South Korea and elsewhere. Japan.
Dutch semiconductor design and manufacturing company NXP Semiconductor also announced at CES 2024 new chips designed for automotive applications that support advanced ADAS and autonomous driving applications. This includes SAE Level 2+ and 3 advanced comfort features such as Traffic Jam Assist, Highway Pilot and Park Assist, Front and Rear Cross Traffic Alert, and Side and Rear Collision Avoidance.
rapid innovation
Despite the slowdown in EV sales, the future of cars will definitely be electric. As OEMs build more and more EVs, there is an opportunity for chipmakers to emerge as leaders and capitalize on the opportunities this space presents.
However, as many companies innovate in the same field, the market becomes increasingly dynamic and, as a result, more competitive, which is good from a market perspective. This simultaneously fosters innovation as companies accelerate innovation to stay ahead of their competitors.