NVIDIA, AMD, and Qualcomm are investing heavily in AI. And Intel is not going down without a fight. Recently, Intel has announced their plans to put AI into everything they build, from desktop computers to tablets, to everything where Intel chips are needed. And one of their starting points is cars.
Intel said they plan to create a family of systems-on-chip to enhance the driving experience. These chips would allow for improved navigation and voice assistants. The image that pops in my head is smoother, hands-free controls with Waze, so I won’t have to fumble to reroute at every stoplight. You may be able to say, “Can you find me another route, the road over there is terrible/closed.” It certainly sounds nice to have sci-fi elements within grasp.
Intel also mentioned video conferencing, which is handy. They also said something about video games – but for passengers riding at the back. Honda and Sony have just announced something like this, and I don’t know what to feel about it. I mean, we have handheld gaming consoles, we have phones that can play games and all, being able to play games inside the car just seems like an excess. A gimmick, at most.
Intel has recently acquired Silicon Mobility SAS, a company that specializes in energy management. Basically, their purpose would be to develop the next generation of EV batteries to be lightweight and use less materials while having the same performance or better. Right now, EV batteries are among the most expensive components that make EVs pricier than your average gas-hungry vehicles.
For now, the only partner Intel has announced is Zeekr. A Chinese car manufacturer, which is a sub brand of Geely. I see a lot of Geely cars around, so, perhaps it’s safe-ish to assume Intel’s AI will slowly creep up to Geely and Volvo (which Geely currently owns) if the tech has indeed improved experiences with Zeekr.