How many cores does your car have? Mine is an Nvidia 8-core!

Chip manufacturer Nvidia has a long history with automobiles.

As early as the day before CES last year, when Google teamed up with Audi, GM and other automakers to form the Open Automotive Alliance (OAA), Nvidia was the chip provider for the alliance. Moreover, Nvidia later launched the automotive version of the Tegra K1 processor, which the official positioned as the "brain of the future connected car system."

However, in 2014, smart cars were still in their infancy, and Nvidia had little chance to perform. But it seems that Nvidia's love for cars has not diminished. The latest generation of 64-bit mobile chip Tegra X1 launched today can be said to be born for in-vehicle infotainment systems.

The most powerful example is that, with this chip, NVIDIA also released the virtual driving system Drive CX and the autonomous driving system Drive PX. Compared with mobile devices, these two systems can give full play to the computing performance of Tegra X1, which exceeds the supercomputer of 15 years ago.

Drive CX aims to make the in-car display the center of the infotainment system. It enables the display to be used for virtual instrument panels, infotainment center consoles, head-up displays, virtual rearview mirrors, etc., and supports running various operating systems including QNX, Android, and Linux.

DRIVE PX is equipped with two Tegra X1 processors, which can process videos from 12 cameras around the vehicle in real time. It can help car owners detect information about all other cars around the vehicle, pedestrians on the roadside, traffic lights, speed cameras, etc., and even realize automatic parking function.

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Judging from Nvidia's demo at CES, the two major systems, Drive CX and Drive PX, work in coordination and can currently achieve five functions: display data information such as fuel level and vehicle speed; control the temperature in the car, play music and videos, etc.; support connecting smartphones to cars through Android Auto; real-time processing of camera images around the car to create a surround visual effect; and 3D navigation.

Among them, 3D navigation is a feature that most directly highlights the performance of Tegra X1. It transforms the ordinary navigation line of sight into a 3D model, and supports gesture operations such as pinching, rotating, and zooming in. More importantly, it also supports split-screen operation, so car owners can navigate and play music at the same time.

Seeing this, you may have also discovered that NVIDIA actually built a complete in-vehicle infotainment system based on Tegra X1, from processors to software services . However, this is an olive branch thrown by NVIDIA to car manufacturers. Whether to accept it or not is not up to NVIDIA. At least for now, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and other car manufacturers have not made any statement. Fortunately, the field of automotive chips has just started, and Qualcomm does not occupy an absolute dominant position. NVIDIA, which has been ambiguous with Google for a long time, still has time and opportunities.