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26 The PCB Magazine • September 2015 AuTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGy continues FEAturE NVIDIA: Today it is mostly graphics and sen- sors, but think about the 8 million cars that now have NVIDIA devices and add the expec- tation of 25 million more cars using our devices in the next five years. We are working with the BMW group, Tesla, Audi and the Volkswagen group and Rolls Royce, also Honda has just an- nounced. The 25 million expected is just based on Graphics; autonomous driving will add a great deal more NVIDIA content to those 25 million and increase the total. There are no drive PX using specific carmakers announced as yet, but we are working with them and an- nouncement timing is up to the specific manu- facturer. Soon we will be able to enable vehicles that can take advantage of some lanes that may be- come useable for driverless cars only. Feinberg: What do you see regarding the change/ increase of electronic devices in automobiles over the next five years? NVIDIA: It is accelerating. Some cars now have 250 processors already, but some of them are very basic, such as managing the door locks or the memory seats, etc. But what we are doing is bringing supercomputing into the car, reduc- ing the number of separate systems, reducing the costs while adding greatly to the capability. There are other established competitive compa- nies but they are bringing faster and faster over- all progress. For example, we now have twice as many software engineers than hardware engi- neers. We plan on building the systems as well as the applications to enable the car manufac- turers to design tomorrow's systems. Feinberg: How are electronics changing the driving experience besides the obvious inclusion of GPS, verbal texting and phone communications, etc? NVIDIA: The entire movement to autonomous vehicles will greatly change the driving experi- ence starting sooner than many think. Feinberg: What demands are car manufacturers placing on you? What are their key needs? NVIDIA: Cost/price is a factor and always a stat- ed need, but the mindset is shifting. Car compa- nies are starting to invest in the future. They are also starting to say that "once they ship the car they are not done with it." They believe they can continue to improve the car by sending out software updates. Tesla is leading the industry in using that model. It is expected that the in- dustry will adopt that model more and more. Going into the dealer and getting a software up- date that renews the car and adds features and changes the interior appearance, and even the GUI, have become expectations. Nevada is now building "automotive grade" devices. Even the computer modules in newer cars will be upgrad- able as new hardware is designed and produced. Feinberg: From your perspective what does the car 5 to 10 years out look like? NVIDIA: In five to ten years, there will be radi- cally more computing horsepower in the car and many more sensors. Fully autonomous ve- hicles will be ready sooner than most think, but the questions are will the public and society be ready to accept it and will the regulations and laws be ready? There will be more than one au- tonomous mode. For example, Audi and NVID- IA will have their system to self-drive in traf- fic jams—keeping a safe distance, stay in lanes, etc. (This should be the first autonomous mode generally available.) This mode, the traffic jam pilot, will be available in 2017. From that the next step will be the ability to program in your destination and get on the highway and the car will drive the highway. This may be available in about three to four years. Remember, we already have auto Parallel Park that works well. There will be more and more additional driver assist