NVIDIA Announces Tegra X1 Chip and Drive CX and PX Automotive Platforms

MojoKid writes For the last few years, NVIDIA has taken advantage of the lead-up to the Consumer Electronics Show to announce new Tegra-powered mobile architectures and this year we're being treated to more of the same. Today, NVIDIA unveiled its upcoming Tegra X1 system on a chip (SoC) and a few automotive computer systems leveraging the chip. Tegra X1 is a significant departure from the previous-gen Tegra K1 in that it features a 256 core Maxwell-derived GPU and eight CPU cores; four ARM A57 cores and four A53s in a big.LITTLE configuration. NVIDIA claims the Tegra X1 offers up to 2x the performance of the Tegra K1 in a similar power envelope, thanks to improved efficiency in the CPU and GPU cores and because the chips will be built using TSMC's 20nm manufacturing process. In addition to the Tegra X1 itself, NVIDIA also announced some new automotive computing platforms, the NVIDIA Drive CX Digital Cockpit Computer and Drive PX Auto-Pilot Platform, along with the Drive Studio software suite for developing in-car infotainment systems and autonomous driving systems.

Comments

right

[rohitbabu]

yeah i am big fan of them

Cars are for driving

[sinij]

Car are for driving, why would anyone want to pay for bolted-on infotainment system that will sit most of its time in the garage or in the parking lot outside your office? The same infotainment system that would be obsolete in 4 years, when most consumers still consider 4 year old car "recent"?

Most people already have tablets, smartphones, laptops and other multipurpose infotainment devices. We can bring them in and out of the car, and (ideally only when riding as passengers) use them in the car. These devices are generally supported by manufacturers and developers that specialize in electronics and software. They get frequent security updates and adequate security measures built-in. When in a couple of years these electronic devices become obsolete, it is relatively inexpensive (you don't have to take out 8 year financing to get one) to replace.

Meanwhile, in-car infotainment systems are serious security and safety concern. There are known and demonstrated issues (look up work by Dr. Charlie Miller & Chris Valasek) that allow remote and local attackers to hijack car functionality and potentially cause a car crash via exploiting infotainment systems.

In closing:
Dear Car Manufacturers,
Please limit yourself to designing cars. Your infotainment systems are not desirable, and are not competitive with better and cheaper systems offered by Apple/Samsung/Microsoft. Bundling infotainment into unwanted "technology" packages makes your automobiles too expensive compared to competition. Don't confuse consumer demand for backup camera or in-dash GPS for demand for infotainment system.
-Consumers

Re:Cars are for driving

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Car Manufacturers,

Please continue offering the option of a 2 DIN frame in the dashboard.

Re:Cars are for driving

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

I think the thing you're missing is that car infotainment systems need to exist as a fallback if you don't own a smart device or mp3 player or tablet or whatever.

Remote exploits and security concerns are true for any bit of software running.

Granted I'm not optimistic it'll get better soon, and what it'll take to make it better kind of frightens me.

Still, that's not the fault for the infotainment system existing. That's the fault of the crappy car maker.

Re:Cars are for driving

[sinij]

Sorry, but no. There is no need for a fallback for infotainment. Inability to browse cat pictures or watch youtube is not an emergency that has to be planned for, with redundancy acquired at a great overall expense. These infotainment systems increase car costs, you end up paying for them regardless of usage.
 
Also, if you don't already own a smart device, yet can afford a car equipped with infotainment system, it is clearly a matter of choice.

Re:Cars are for driving

[tlhIngan]

Sorry, but no. There is no need for a fallback for infotainment. Inability to browse cat pictures or watch youtube is not an emergency that has to be planned for, with redundancy acquired at a great overall expense. These infotainment systems increase car costs, you end up paying for them regardless of usage.

Also, if you don't already own a smart device, yet can afford a car equipped with infotainment system, it is clearly a matter of choice.

Actually, infotainment systems are stupidly cheap because everything's in software. Navigation systems are generally the main goal (and trust me, cars are used in areas where there is lousy data coverage, so offline maps are handy) which gets you a big screen. The radio part is fairly trivial as are the bluetooth parts.

Basically to have an onboard GPS gives you a lot, and you might as well reuse the screen instead of having more screens for the climate control, radio (AM/FM/satellite/CD/etc) and dozens of other features that require user feedback. This leaves the knobs and switches which are just attached to a giant PCB hooked to the infotainment system as well. The actual mechanics are done by servos and such (allowing things like defoggers to turn on the AC to dehumidify the air and get the windows clear quickly). Yes, sometimes you really want to run the AC in winter.

All this makes for a more compact and less complex front panel because instead of having to have a bunch of levers and such to hook up, it's just a simple connector. Oh yeah, the car weighs a few pounds less as well.

Then there's the rental cars and fleet vehicles which may be basic in everything, but since you can't rely on the current driver to have a smart device...

Infotainment systems are pure electronics. Very cheap, very light and very simple in the end - it's why even your most basic of econoboxes has 'em, and even they have upgrades for full navigation systems because in the end, it's jujst a matter of the software loaded onto it.

Even something like voice recognition is free - the hardware's there (for the handsfree system) so just have a button and you're done.

Of course, some cars have taken to the extreme and ditched the front panel - making it an iPad app or something that coordinates all the UI controls.

Re:Cars are for driving

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

Neither are a really comfy ride or even padded upholstered seats.

Necessary in terms of being a modern creature comfort in a car. Not necessary as in, "car needs to run."

As far as being a driver distraction, I don't think it's that big of a deal unless there's crazy animations on screen when doing things like changing track, returning the radio, changing volume, etc. and most of that can be done from the wheel.

Cars are for driving

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not just for "infotainment" - they're also designing a system for navigation and autonomous driving

Generational succession

[Marquis231]

Here I sit, holding my Zune HD. Featuring the first tegra chip amongst other innovations. First consumer tech device with an OLED display, and the prototype software for the Windows Phone 7 & 8 OS. I didn't think the platform would get this far. Pity the software went nowhere, windows phone seems horrible. Tegra seems great!

Re:Generational succession

[Anonymous Coward]

First consumer tech device with an OLED display

Hum, no.

Sony NW-A3000, 2-inch OLED, B&W 2005
Nokia N85, 2.6-inch OLED, October 2008
Sony Walkman X Series, April 2009
Zune HD, September 2009

Re:Generational slashvertizement

[Anonymous Coward]

there FTFY.