{"id":652918,"date":"2013-04-17T11:00:04","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T15:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=631656"},"modified":"2013-04-17T11:00:04","modified_gmt":"2013-04-17T15:00:04","slug":"can-nvidia-create-a-connected-car-system-that-never-becomes-obsolete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/652918","title":{"rendered":"Can Nvidia create a connected car system that never becomes obsolete?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you go to a Best Buy and buy a high-end smartphone, you\u2019re likely getting the most cutting edge hardware and software the mobile industry has to offer. But if you were to go to your local car dealership and buy the newest model luxury vehicle, chances are the infotainment and connectivity technologies embedded within are already several years old.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the curse of the automotive industry: the lead time on new car designs and manufacturing schedules mean that the technology you\u2019re buying today was developed years earlier. What\u2019s more, that technology effectively becomes locked down in your vehicle. As soon as your drive off the lot the connected car system you have is the one you\u2019re stuck with for years.\u00a0(For more details on the connected car technology check out our infographic<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\"connected<\/a>Mobile processor maker Nvidia, however, is proposing a solution to that problem: why not make an upgradable connected car system. We \u201cupgrade\u201d our smartphones and tablets every year or two by buying completely new devices, but that\u2019s not really an option for an automobile.<\/p>\n

However, with processors based on its Tegra designs, Nvidia wants to empower automakers to build cars that not only have top-of-the-line computing components when they roll off the lot but also can be upgraded periodically during their long lives.<\/p>\n

In short, Nvidia wants to help automakers make connected cars that never become obsolete.<\/p>\n

Meet Jetson<\/h2>\n

According to Nvidia Director of Automotive Danny Shapiro, the company designed its automotive processors, called Visual Computing Modules<\/a>, around a flexible framework that allows automakers to work future processor technology into what are typically three-year long development cycles. Rather than design a connected car system years away from production using today\u2019s chips, engineers can design tomorrow\u2019s cars using tomorrow\u2019s chips, Shapiro said.<\/p>\n

\"Green<\/a><\/p>\n

Tesla Model S<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

That program is already seeing some pretty significant results, Shapiro said. Within a month of shipping in Google\u2019s flagship tablet, the Nexus 7<\/a>, the Tegra 3 debuted in the Tesla Model S<\/a>, powering its impressive infotainment system (along with a separate Tegra 2 processor to handle the instrument cluster).<\/p>\n

That solves the first problem \u2013 making an infotainment system that\u2019s not obsolete before it hits the show floor. Solving the next problem — making a connected car system that keeps up with the pace of consumer electronics innovation — is much trickier.<\/p>\n

To tackle it, Nvidia recently launched a new automotive architecture called Jetson<\/a>, which tries to solve more than just the problem of obsolescence. First, Jetson is powerful, incorporating Nvidia\u2019s pixel-crunching graphics processing units alongside its Tegra VCM chips. Nvidia is hoping that its silicon won\u2019t just be the brains of your infotainment system but an extra set of eyes on the road.<\/p>\n

\"Danny<\/a><\/p>\n

Danny Shapiro<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Nvidia wants to power the advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) emerging in the next-generation of cars, Shapiro said. Moving beyond adaptive cruise control and proximity detection, cars will eventually sport omnidirectional cameras that will \u201csee\u201d the road in all directions<\/a> and possibly even scanning lasers that can model a vehicle\u2019s surrounding in 3D. The art of processing image and spatial data just happens to be Nvidia\u2019s sweet spot.<\/p>\n

In addition, Nvidia has crafted Jetson to be a development platform that builds on its earlier work with its VCM chips. \u201cAutomakers can simulate future designs,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cThey can get their development done now, preparing for the next-generation chips and next-generation car apps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Jetson is modular. The core processing unit is designed to be swappable. That means an automaker can easily incorporate the latest and greatest version of Jetson into their existing connected car and infotainment systems each successive years. It also means, Shapiro said, that one day we could upgrade our car\u2019s dashboard computers much like we\u2019d upgrade an old PC.<\/p>\n

Pimp my ride\u2019s CPU<\/h2>\n

Unless you’re one of those folks that can afford to buy a new car every time the ashtrays get full, chances are any new vehicle purchase is going to be a long-term investment. Six years is not an unreasonable time to spend driving the same car, but that\u2019s an eternity in the world of consumer electronics. Six years ago, what we now think of as a smartphone didn\u2019t exist, and no one had yet developed many technologies we now take for granted such as speech-powered virtual assistants, 3D mapping and location-based social networks.<\/p>\n

\"Connected<\/a>Many automakers have decided that trying to keeping up with the day-to-day advances of that technology is an exercise in futility and have built their connected car strategies around the smartphone itself<\/a>. Ford and Chevy, for instance have designed their connected infotainment systems as extensions of the driver\u2019s handset. So as the smartphone becomes more powerful, so do their cars\u2019 dashboards.<\/p>\n

An upgradable CPU would solve part of that problem, but not the whole problem. It doesn\u2019t matter if your new car dash computer can process hi-rez images in real time if it doesn\u2019t have the sensors to collect those images.<\/p>\n

But the auto industry is trying to solve that problem as well. Ford has launched an open-source hardware program called OpenXC<\/a>, which could let us upgrade components like heads up displays and sensor arrays in our future cars.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying you\u2019ll be able to turn your old jalopy into KITT from Knight Rider<\/a>, but who knows? One day maybe we could customize our cars so they behave like new even if they don\u2019t look like new.<\/p>\n

Mouse car image courtesy of Shutterstock<\/a> user Mopic<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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