Arm Ties with GM and Toyota Over Self-Driving Cars

On Wednesday, the announcement of Arm Holdings, a British chip technology firm owned by Japan’s Softbank Group Corp, that it will be joining with automakers General Motors Co and Toyota Motor Corp, happened.

 

This move is to establish standard calculating systems for self-driving cars. Moreover, an effort by the companies hoping they will speed up the progress of the technology.

 

In today’s smartphones, Arm supplies consist of the underlying technology for the processors. On the other side, it does not produce chips itself.

 

The firm ties up with the automotive industry way back to the late 1990s. The beginning of automakers adding computer chips on vehicles then happened.

 

These computer chips are for the vehicles to function like engine control and diagnostics.

Last Tuesday, the company indicated it was assisting in creating the Autonomous Vehicle Computing Consortium, or AVCC.

 

The plan is along with the two automakers and industry dealers Bosch Corp, Denso Corp, and Continental AG.

 

Moreover, the search is with the help of other groups such as semiconductor companies Nvidia Corp and NXP Semiconductors. They both set their chips into Arm’s technology.

 

Analysts anticipate the number of chips in cars to increase. This move comes as automakers and tech companies work on self-driving vehicles.

 

But the new test vehicles being used to advance self-driving software are using the same kind of huge, electricity-hungry chips. The chips are in data centers.

 

Across the industry, chip firms and automakers settled that the power diet and size of the gear must decrease considerably.

 

The cutting is for it to fit into cars of the general public. It is also perhaps a tenth or less the stage of current systems.

 

Different Kinds of Autonomous Vehicles

In a news report interview, Chet Babla, Arm’s vice president of automotive, indicated, “I just came back from trips in the U.S. and China. I had the opportunity to ride in four different types of autonomous vehicles.”

 

He also added, “They were great prototype platforms for proving the software, but when I asked to look at electronics powering these vehicles, it literally was servers in trunks.”

 

The AVCC announced it would be an independent group. Also, it will get its funds from membership fees from the businesses that join.

 

Meanwhile, Arm officials stated its work would be open to non-members.

 

The group’s first task will have to do with establishing a similar computing architecture.

 

The move intends to make it easier for car companies to write software.

 

The said operating systems would work on chips from various vendors.

 

They are also similar to how Microsoft Corp Windows-based software operates on processors from Intel Corp or Advanced Micro Devices Inc.