20 THE FUTURE OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES https://www.ti.com/ Issue 1 2026 Power Electronics Europe www.power-mag.com Why scalable high-performance SoCs are the future of autonomous vehicles By Alec Schott, Texas Instruments Figure 1. Visualization of ADAS features for autonomous driving in a software-defined vehicle analyzing environmental data The automotive industry is ascending to higher levels of vehicle autonomy with the help of central computing platforms. SoCs like the TDA5 family offer safe, efficient AI performance through an integrated C7™ NPU and chiplet-ready design. These SoCs enable automakers to more easily implement ADAS capabilities, bringing premium features to all types of vehicles, from base models to luxury cars. Introduction How long have advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving been trendy topics? For the last decade or so, automakers at trade shows have shown consumers visions of a future with roads full of intelligent, autonomous vehicles. We are finally closer to that vision. You likely have driven in or may even own a vehicle with features that existed only conceptually 10 years ago. In terms of broad availability and the adoption of intelligent ADAS features and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, the industry is progressing through the Society of Automotive Engineers’ levels of vehicle autonomy from Level 1 to Level 2 and Level 3. This proliferation of autonomous features is currently occurring in both domain-based and central computing vehicle architectures. The next, biggest steps toward vehicle autonomy will occur in the latter, with software-defined vehicles (SDVs), as visualized in Figure 1, poised to become the standard vehicle configuration. This emerging vehicle architecture consolidates traditional distributed electronic control units (ECUs) into powerful central computing platforms, enabling over-the-air updates, feature additions and enhanced functionality throughout a vehicle’s lifetime. SDVs use hardware as a platform and software for iterative updates, giving automakers the flexibility to continuously improve a vehicle’s capabilities and deliver new autonomous driving features without hardware changes. SoCs for the next generation of automotive designs At the core of central computing architectures (Figure 2) are heterogeneous Figure 2. Simplified overview of the central computing architecture and connected systems in a software-defined vehicle
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ0NzM=