A Super Computer in Every Car?

TRAVERSE CITY, MI – A single, tiny half-inch-square (13-mm) chip one day may transform cars and trucks into super computers that can control all functions and features, eventually paving the way to the driverless car.

That’s the vision of software engineering firm NVIDIA, based in Santa Clara, CA, which boasts it’s already “the world leader in visual computing.”

Rob Csongor, vice president and general manager-automotive, says in a Management Briefing Seminars session here that NVIDIA already has its foot in the door with the new Audi A3’s navigation system that connects with Google Earth for a full satellite street view.

“We see the car as becoming much more powerful (as an infotainment device) than the (current) tablet or smartphone, but we’re not there yet,” he says.

Csongor says five years ago multiple chips would have been necessary to control various functions. “Now we can do the whole system with one processor (chip).”

Cost remains a drawback, he admits, but says that will come down as volume goes up.

The technology will expand to other automakers and become relatively common by the end of this decade, company officials say.

“We’re talking to every automaker,” another NVIDIA executive says. “We have 20 development projects under way.” One project: A mirror-less car.

NVIDIA processors one day will be capable of running all operating systems such as apps, infotainment systems, instrument-panel clusters and others, Csongor maintains. Cameras will become the “brains” of the vehicle, he adds.

“Tesla (the premium electric-vehicle builder) already views the car as a computer,” Csongor says.

NVIDIA supplied the computer graphics for the recent movie “Gravity” and provides the technology for the “yellow line” used in televised football games to show the line of scrimmage.