Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/565949
September 2015 • The PCB Magazine 27 modes until we finally get to full autonomous mode in about ten years. Also coming is a good voice control system. Voice is a good control mode but the implementation so far has not been that good, as it takes a huge amount of computational power—but it is coming. (For an example of what is coming, check out the Mercedes F-15.) All the door panels are touch screens; you are fully surrounded by pixels. And, as we have stated, many updates and upgrades will be available via software updates instead of having to buy new hardware. Feinberg: What requirements are you placing on your suppliers, especially those that you would like to see advances in? NVIDIA: From a technology perspective, we are demanding higher speed interfaces from our suppliers. Let's take sensors for example. On one end, we have state of the art imaging so- lutions with several million pixels per second coming in. On the other end, we have a world class super computer class TEGRA SOC that is capable of processing all these pixels, and more. The interfaces that connect these two ends to- gether, however, is currently the bottleneck. From a supply chain point of view, longev- ity is key and we continue to ask our suppli- ers for longer life cycle components. The car companies take 2–3 years to test and qualify a car to be ready to place it on the market. The last thing they want to hear is that one of the 30,000+ parts in a car has a DRAM, for example, that is being retired and moved to a new silicon node or a different package. Feinberg: What advice would you give a manufac- turer who is or wants to do business with you? NVIDIA: That's easy; we require robustness, zero defects and high quality. They must support our goal of delivering the absolute best user experi- ence. Feinberg: How will cars interact with each other and with their environment (e.g., road signs, ob- stacles, etc.)? NVIDIA: Road signs will become interactive, they will be able to communicate with the car and the driver in various languages—just select the one you want to use. The infrastructure will AuTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGy continues FEAturE