Every year at CES, we see many promising innovations aimed at tackling some of the greatest challenges across all technology markets, but what you might not know is that a huge number of them are built on the Arm compute platform – and the automotive industry is no exception. When it comes to automotive, generative AI applications are becoming paramount and drivers are demanding increasingly advanced autonomous driving features and user experiences. This means automakers need simpler, more consolidated systems with server-class performance to handle the complexities of AI – and at Arm, we’re collaborating with leading partners including NVIDIA to meet these needs.

Slated to be available in production vehicles later this year and a key focus at this year’s CES, NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor™ is a centralized compute system built on the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture, and the first solution to use Arm Neoverse V3AE, our first ever Neoverse CPU enhanced for automotive applications. Combining NVIDIA’s AI expertise with the power and advanced capabilities of the Arm compute platform, NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor delivers the AI capabilities that next-generation consumer and commercial fleets demand, and the market is taking notice – many leading OEMs plan to adopt NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor to power the next generation of software-defined vehicles (SDVs).

Leveraging the power, efficiency and safety leadership of the Arm Neoverse V3AE, NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor enables generative AI applications for automotive including automated driving and parking, driver and passenger monitoring, and feature-rich cockpit capabilities all on a centralized safe and secure platform. As algorithms evolve from traditional convolutional neural networks (CNNs) towards transformers and generative AI, NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor enables fewer discrete stages of computation and delivers higher fidelity or faster response time for a given workload. When deployed in level 3 or higher autonomous driving use cases, a single Nvidia DRIVE AGX Thor will deliver the same functionality as multiple leading edge devices in vehicles today, leading to significant performance benefits for automakers.

Arm Neoverse V3AE was launched in March 2024 as part of a series of industry firsts, including introducing Armv9-based technologies to the automotive market for the first time. The industry can now take advantage of the AI, security and virtualization capabilities of the Armv9 architecture. These new technologies combined with a range of new virtual platforms from our ecosystem partners will help to accelerate automotive development cycles by up to two years.

Time and again, automakers and their supply chain partners have chosen Arm for our power-efficiency heritage, exceptional performance, and expertise in functional safety. In fact, 94% of global automakers use Arm technology in their newest vehicle models. Meanwhile, the top 15 automotive semiconductor suppliers in the world adopt Arm technologies in their silicon solutions.

By continuing our longstanding collaborations with companies like NVIDIA, we can deliver new levels of performance, efficiency and AI capabilities, making it easier for automakers to develop the next generation of cutting-edge SDVs.

– By Dipti Vachani, SVP and GM of the Automotive Line of Business,Arm