MediaTek and NVIDIA Partner to Make Future Car Cockpits Smarter, Better Connected, and with Enhanced Computing Capabilities

As car interiors get more advanced, vehicle electronics rely on the same technologies found in today’s smartphones, like advanced AI, 5G connectivity, and computing capabilities. MediaTek and NVIDIA have just announced a partnership at Computex that will provide a complete range of AI cabin solutions for the next generation of software-defined vehicles to meet the demand for smarter vehicles.

A car empowered by MediaTek and NVIDIA

This definitely doesn’t look like the inside of my Jeep. 😛

For over a decade, NVIDIA has been at the forefront of assisting automakers with the modernization of vehicle cockpits. Their technology has become integral to powering the infotainment systems, graphical user interfaces, and touchscreens found in modern automobiles on all ends of the pricing spectrum.

AI and accelerated computing are fueling the transformation of the entire auto industry. The combination of MediaTek’s industry-leading SoC and NVIDIA’s GPU and AI software technologies will enable new user experiences, enhanced safety and new connected services for all vehicle segments, from luxury to mainstream. – Jensen Huang, founder, and CEO of NVIDIA.

With decades of expertise in mobile computing, high-speed connectivity, and entertainment, MediaTek boasts a vast Android ecosystem, so this sounds like a dream collaboration.

The new MediaTek Dimensity Auto Platform is equipped with the remarkable Dimensity Auto Cockpit, which facilitates seamless interaction between drivers and passengers and the cockpit and infotainment systems through smart multi-displays, high-dynamic range cameras, and advanced audio processing capabilities, specifically:

  • Scalable AI multi-processor equipped with both deep learning accelerator (MDLA) and vision processing unit (MVPU)
  • Leading-edge chip manufacturing, ensuring highly efficient power consumption
  • MediaTek MiraVision smart display technology, supporting multiple displays and up to 8K 120Hz screens in HDR
  • Support for several HDR-native cameras
  • A dedicated DSP for microphone audio processing
  • Full suite of entertainment streaming and decoding, taking advantage of MediaTek’s extensive expertise in multimedia
  • Fast, sub-1s boot time

The MediaTek and NVIDIA partnership will combine each company’s technologies to provide advanced AI cabin and cockpit functions with enhanced graphics, AI capabilities, safety, and security features; to that end, MediaTek’s smart cabin solutions will utilize NVIDIA’s DRIVE OS, DRIVE IX, CUDA, and TensorRT software technologies.

  • NVIDIA’s DRIVE OS is an operating system designed specifically for autonomous vehicles. By incorporating DRIVE OS into MediaTek’s smart cabin solutions, the cabin and cockpit functions can leverage the benefits of a robust and reliable operating system tailored for automotive applications.
  • DRIVE IX is NVIDIA’s intelligent experience software development kit (SDK) for creating AI-powered vehicle user experiences. With MediaTek’s integration of DRIVE IX, smart cabin solutions can deliver sophisticated AI-driven functionalities, such as voice recognition, gesture control, driver monitoring, and personalized user interfaces, enhancing the overall in-car experience.
  • MediaTek’s adoption of NVIDIA’s CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) and TensorRT software technologies enables efficient acceleration of AI computations within the smart cabin solutions.
  • CUDA is a parallel computing platform and programming model that allows developers to leverage the power of NVIDIA GPUs for general-purpose computing tasks, including AI processing.
  • TensorRT is an inference optimizer and runtime library that further enhances AI performance by optimizing and accelerating deep learning models.

By combining these NVIDIA technologies onto a single chip, MediaTek’s smart cabin solutions will provide a comprehensive range of AI-driven features, including advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), augmented reality (AR) displays, intelligent voice assistants, interior cameras with facial recognition, and other safety and security functions like state-of-the-art cybersecurity.

NVIDIA is a world-renowned pioneer and industry leader in AI and computing. With this partnership, our collaborative vision is to provide a global one-stop shop for the automotive industry, designing the next generation of intelligent, always-connected vehicles.

Through this special collaboration with NVIDIA, we will together be able to offer a truly unique platform for the compute-intensive, software-defined vehicle of the future. – Rick Tsai, Vice Chairman and CEO of MediaTek.

Additionally, the integration of cutting-edge graphics capabilities will offer passengers visually rich and immersive experiences within the cabin environment, including enhanced multimedia options.

Modern Vehicles’ use of AI for safety, smart cabin solutions, and infotainment multimedia systems has become progressively more complex, with new features being introduced all the time; with that in mind, vehicles equipped with the new MediaTek Dimensity Auto Platform will have a full software solution complete with extra headroom so they can be updated over the air to run future applications that haven’t even been thought of today.

We can expect the first MediaTek and NVIDIA SOCs to be produced in 2026 for the 2027 model-year vehicles.

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About the Author

Judie Lipsett Stanford
Judie is the co-owner and Editor-in-Chief of Gear Diary, which she founded in September 2006. She started in 1999 writing software reviews at the now-defunct smaller.com; from mid-2000 through 2006, she wrote hardware reviews for and co-edited at The Gadgeteer. A recipient of the Sigma Kappa Colby Award for Technology, Judie is best known for her device-agnostic approach, deep-dive reviews, and enjoyment of exploring the latest tech, gadgets, and gear.

1 Comment on "MediaTek and NVIDIA Partner to Make Future Car Cockpits Smarter, Better Connected, and with Enhanced Computing Capabilities"

  1. The future and all of the enriching technology that comes with it really is upon us

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