When the first self-driving car was unveiled at the Global Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the whole world cheered; today, autonomous driving is truly coming into our lives. There is no doubt that autonomous driving is another great revolution in the history of the automotive industry in the past century, allowing auto companies to redefine the rules of the industry and representing one of the most important changes in the industry in the next five years. Consumers are no longer buying a sophisticated appliance, but a "walking computer." The chip on which autonomous driving depends for its livelihood has become a hot "palm pearl", singing the protagonist at the 2022 CES exhibition. The big manufacturers in the chip industry rushed to release new products and began a "chip competition".
Mobileye, Intel's self-driving hardware and software subsidiary, unveiled the EyeQ Ultra System Integration Chip specifically for autonomous driving at CES this week. The Ultra, called EyeQ, delivers 176 trillion operations per second. Aiming to deliver superior power and performance from autonomous vehicles, EyeQ Ultra expects to launch its first chip by the end of 2023 and reach full automotive-grade production by 2025.
Amnon Shashua, president and CEO of Mobileye, said: "Our consumer self-driving car, Consumer AV, will be the terminator in this industry. "By developing entire autonomous driving solutions – from hardware and software to maps and service models – Mobileye has a unique perspective on the exact requirements of autonomous driving systems, allowing us to achieve performance and cost optimizations that make Consumer AV a reality."
At CES, Mobileye successfully signed or extended agreements with automakers such as Volkswagen, Ford and Extreme Kr, a unit of Chinese auto giant Geely Holdings Group. They will use Mobileye's road experience management (REM) technology, map data and more to bring a better experience to drivers. Among them, Mobileye will cooperate with Geely to produce the first Level 4 autonomous vehicle, which will debut in China in 2024.
Graphics chip leader NVIDIA is not far behind, highlighting its drive Hyperion 8 self-driving platform, which was first released in November, at CES, claiming that it will be mass-produced in 2024. At present, many car companies are adopting their computer architectures and sensors, including Volvo, Xiaopeng, Weilai, SAIC's Zhiji, Ideal and other car companies. The AI platform uses NVIDIA's DRIVE Orin SoC for safe driving technology and includes 12 surround cameras, nine radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors, a front-facing lidar and three internal sensing cameras. The platform is an open design that is scalable, which shows that Nvidia understands that the future of autonomous driving is focused on platform development and expansion.
Ali Kani, vice president and general manager of NVIDIA's automotive business, said: "Autonomous driving may be the most intense challenge in the field of artificial intelligence, but overcoming it can maximize the benefit of society. ”
Qualcomm Incorporated, the world's leading high-tech communications company and the largest supplier of mobile chips, has also thrown its bombshell at people: a "all-you-can- and all-you-can-do" digital chassis. The digital chassis is more than just an entertainment system, it's also powered by an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) and an autonomous-driving Snapdragon Ride platform, cloud connectivity services, 5G connectivity services, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and precision positioning, as well as a next-generation Snapdragon cockpit (integrated digital metering, navigation, audio, applications). At present, Qualcomm has signed contracts with about 40 OEMs including Volvo, BMW, General Motors, Hyundai, Jidu, Xiaopeng, Nio and Weima to integrate different Snapdragon platforms into their cars. Honda also shared plans to introduce Qualcomm's digital cockpit for the first time, with plans to launch in the U.S. in the second half of 2022 and globally in 2023.
(Editor: Kim Ri-wei)