CES 2024: Intel expands AI strategy to automotive industry - and supplies SoCs to Zeekr

At CES 2024, US chip giant Intel announced plans to extend its "AI Everywhere" strategy to the automotive industry. As part of this initiative, the company revealed its acquisition of Silicon Mobility, a fabless silicon and software company specializing in SoCs for the intelligent energy management of electric vehicles. Additionally, the chip manufacturer presented its first generation of AI-optimized System-on-Chips (SoCs) specifically developed for software-defined vehicles (SDV). Zeekr will be the first original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to utilize the new SoCs to offer top-notch entertainment based on generative AI in its future models.

E-mobility drives software-defined vehicle

The shift to electric vehicles and customer demand for in-car entertainment experiences are propelling Intel's strategy for the software-defined vehicle forward, according to the Americans. Intel also announced plans to provide the industry's first open UCIe-based chiplet platform for SDVs. For this, Intel will collaborate with IMEC to ensure that packaging technologies meet the stringent quality and reliability requirements of the automotive industry. Intel will also chair the working group tasked with developing a new international industry standard for the energy management of electric vehicles. Currently, Intel's SoCs are already embedded in more than 50 million vehicles, powering infotainment, displays, digital instrument clusters, and many other systems. In the future, Intel's expanded, AI-powered roadmap for the entire vehicle will steer the industry towards a scalable, software-defined, and sustainable future.

For a more sustainable future of electromobility: Intel acquires Silicon Mobility

Silicon Mobility SAS, a portfolio company of Cipio Partners and Capital-E, is a fabless provider of semiconductor and software solutions for the automotive industry, designing, developing, and deploying SoCs for vehicle energy management. Silicon Mobility's SoCs feature market-leading accelerators specifically designed for power supply, combined with advanced software algorithms to significantly improve vehicle energy efficiency. Silicon Mobility's technology portfolio will expand Intel's range of solutions for the highest computing performance in vehicles to include intelligent and programmable power devices. The acquisition is subject to the necessary approvals.
 

AI Experience from the PC Industry in Cars

With its new product family of AI-supported SDV-SoCs, the provider is ultimately addressing the automotive industry's urgent need, according to the manufacturer, for more energy and performance scalability. The SoCs feature the functionality of AI accelerators from Intel's AI-PC roadmap. This enables numerous AI use cases in the vehicle, such as camera-based monitoring of drivers and passengers. A demo at CES showcased twelve complex application examples, including generative AI, digital mirrors, HD video conferencing, and PC games. The applications ran simultaneously on multiple operating systems and also included various high-criticality applications. This allows automakers to consolidate their Electronic Control Unit (ECU) architectures, achieving increased efficiency, better management, and greater scalability. Meanwhile, custom solutions and AI applications can be seamlessly integrated.

Zeekr Becomes the First Manufacturer to Use Intel's AI SoCs in New Electric Vehicles

With its Zeekr brand, Geely will be the first automaker to deploy Intel's new SDV-SoC series. Andy An, President of Geely Holding Group and CEO of Zeekr Intelligent Technology, explained at CES how the forward compatibility of Intel systems, along with the AI acceleration features of Intel, will allow Zeekr continuous scaling and improved services. This will meet future customer needs and desires, such as speech assistants based on generative AI.