A path mapped, automakers and tech giants drive forward together at CES 2024

A clue to the changing times. And priorities. A more than occasional blurring of an intersection between technology that we use, and the cars we may drive at some point in the future.

The former has its own overarching themes, such as generative AI that’s spawned chatbots galore. The latter, multi-pronged focus on electric mobility, driver assistance and in-car connected tech systems. It is therefore no surprise that what was personal technology’s biggest annual showcase, the Consumer Electronics Show or CES, increasingly welcome developments in mobility and transport too.

This year too, at CES 2024, tech companies and automakers seemingly have taken significant steps forward. (Official images | HT Photo) This year too, at CES 2024, tech companies and automakers seemingly have taken significant steps forward. Tech giants Qualcomm, Google, Intel, Samsung, LG and Nvidia, to name a few, are providing an often artificially intelligent (AI) foundation for carmakers to weave a connected, smart and even driverless car, on it.

That’s meant carmakers including Mercedes Benz, Hyundai, VW, BMW and Kia have each cherrypicked an approach they deemed a best-fit for their product lines and consumers, for a tech infused car ownership experience. Nevertheless, I’ve asked this before, and the question remains as pertinent as ever – does more tech really simplify things in-car? Wrap up the year gone by & gear up for 2024 with HT! Click here Qualcomm attempts to provide an answer, with updates for the Digital Chassis platform’s advanced driver assistance and automated driving systems technologies, as well as what seems to be a seemingly obligatory infusion of generative AI for digital cockpits and connected car systems. For instance, with Snapdragon Cockpit which is a mix of software and hardware (chips such as the Snapdragon Ride Flex SoC, sensors and wireless connectivity modules), they’re able to provide carmakers with a basis on which to build customisable in-car infotainment experiences including multimedia, mapping, safety and gen AI.

In fact, Qualcomm and Bosch have developed what they call the automotive industry’s first central vehicle computer capable of running infotainment and advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) functionalities on one single system-on-chip (SoC). It is based on the Snapdragon Ride Flex SoC. ““The fusion of infotainment and ADAS functionalities on a single SoC is a milestone for the industry, offering a high performance, scalable solution for automakers to realize next-generation software-defined vehicles,” says Nakul Duggal, senior vice president and general manager, automotive & cloud computing, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Nvidia’s Drive platform for different levels of automated driving, are increasingly finding a home in more vehicles. The Drive Orin chip for self-driving cars is now being used by Mercedes Benz and Volvo’s Polestar. The Xiaomi for the upcoming SU7 sedan and Great Wall Motors (GWM) will also use these chips for their electric vehicles.

Drive Orin can compute 254 trillion operations per second, for a vehicle’s autonomous driving functions, which is scalable to support level 2+ to level 5 capabilities. “The transportation industry is embracing centralized compute for highly automated and autonomous driving. The AI car computer of choice for today’s intelligent fleets is Nvidia Drive Orin, with automakers increasingly looking to the advanced capabilities and AI performance of its successor, Nvidia Drive Thor, for their future vehicle roadmaps,” says Xinzhou Wu, vice president of automotive at Nvidia.

The tech giant is betting big on the more advanced Drive Thor, its next-generation centralized car computer, that integrates more capabilities into a single AI compute platform. The spectrum will cover autonomous driving and parking capabilities, driver and passenger monitoring, as well as AI cockpit functionality. For Nvidia, chips that power in-car systems are crucial too.

For instance, Mercedes Benz is one of their biggest customers, to power systems in cars that run its MB. OS operating system. Qualcomm and Nvidia aren’t just Intel’s competitors for processors and in the computing hardware space, but that’s now expanded to include cars as well.

Intel has announced its first generation AI SoC for automobiles, and confirmed it is working on a deal to acquire Silicon Mobility, a fabless silicon and software company that makes chips for EV energy management. A few months ago, Intel had made clear its intention to put AI into everything. If you thought that was just limited to computing devices, you were at best naïve.

“Intel is taking a ‘whole vehicle’ approach to solving the industry’s biggest challenges. Driving innovative AI solutions across the vehicle platform will help the industry navigate the transformation to EVs,” says Jack Weast, vice president and general manager, Intel Automotive. Silicon Mobility’s acquisition will give Intel a leverage in the burgeoning EV market, globally.

The company says Intel’s previous generation chips are already in use in more than 50 million vehicles, particularly powering infotainment systems. Geely’s Zeekr will be the first carmaker to deploy the new AI focused chips – but Intel hasn’t named any more carmakers as customers, though that’s expected to change in the coming months. Gen AI, and a new generation of cockpits Mercedes Benz’ MBUX chatbot will be part of the automaker’s MB.

0S1 operating system. The carmaker says this operating system has been developed in-house, which has perhaps allowed them to customise the AI chatbot to include as many as four selectable personality types (those will define the responses). Game engine developer Unity has designed visual elements for “Hey Mercedes”, which will be the underlier for MBUX Surround Navigation, for route guidance and assistance.

The carmaker is also working with Audible and Amazon Music, with Dolby Atmos audio playing a crucial role, in an attempt to place customers at the centre of what’ll feel akin to a dynamic, concert-hall sound experience, be it audio books, originals content on the streaming platform, podcasts or music. BMW’s Intelligent Personal Assistant’s generative AI foundations are in the hands of Amazon’s Alexa. The carmaker insists there will be personalisation options aplenty.

“Leveraging Amazon’s Alexa Custom Assistant — a solution based on Alexa technology that enables companies to create their own customized voice assistant — the next generation of the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant will soon become more powerful over the course of the year in vehicles with BMW Operating System 9,” they say, in a statement. That isn’t all they’ve in store with the next version of iDrive. You probably didn’t expect this.

The automaker Operating System 9, or iDrive 9, will be based on Google Android Automotive. One of the customisations will include the ability to play a video game using the car’s infotainment display. Good thing to do, when an EV is charging, we suppose? This update will roll out later this year, with games such as Beach Buggy Racing 2even supporting wireless controllers.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT generative AI is providing the foundation for Volkswagen’s IDA in-car voice assistant. Volkswagen is working with tech company Cerence Inc. to roll out the new chatbot in Q2 2024, enabling control of in-car functionality and also ask the ChatGPT based “Hello IDA” whatever else may be on your mind.

Samsung, Hyundai and Kia are working to widen the scope of Samsung’s SmartThings IoT platform. When linked with smart cars, it’ll allow users to control appliances and smart home tech from their cars, and monitor their cars with smart displays and smart speakers at home. Google’s dual-pronged approach looks separately at Android Auto updates, and cars with Google built-in.

The latter is, and understandably so, where the big updates are. It’ll now be easier for users with an Android phone or iPhone to share a trip with a car with Google built-in. More third-party apps are rolling out for these vehicles, depending on geographical availability, including The Weather Channel app and Crunchyroll.

Google’s also made a Chrome browser for the car, which will first be made available on Polestar and Volvo cars, as part of a beta test. They had to. It was in late-2021 when Norwegian tech company Vivaldi had made a browser version for Android Automotive OS, and Polestar cars were the first to get the software.

Unlock a world of Benefits with HT! From insightful newsletters to real-time news alerts and a personalized news feed – it’s all here, just a click away! – Login Now! SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Share this article Share Via Copy Link ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vishal Mathur Vishal Mathur is Technology Editor for Hindustan Times. When not making sense of technology, he often searches for an elusive analog space in a digital world. .

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