Volkswagen Develops In-House Chips for Autonomous Vehicles in China

Volkswagen Group plans to develop its own advanced semiconductors in China to power its locally made semi-autonomous vehicles, ramping up efforts to regain ground in the world's largest car market amid heightened competition.

According to the South China Morning Post, Volkswagen announced that Carizon, a venture it jointly owns with Horizon Robotics, a designer of artificial intelligence integrated circuits, will develop a system-on-a-chip, or SoC, intended to be delivered in the next three to five years.

Ralf Brandsatter, VW China's chairman and CEO, emphasized that this initiative accelerates and deepens the implementation of their 'In China, for China' strategy, moving beyond localized production to mastering the core technologies that will shape tomorrow's mobility.

The SoC is designed to process data generated by an autonomous vehicle's cameras and sensors, boasting a computing power of between 500 and 700 tera operations per second, or TOPS. This unit of measurement indicates the number of trillions of operations the chip can perform in one second, positioning it nearly on par with Nvidia's latest Thor processor, which can perform 700 TOPS.

This move by Volkswagen underscores the growing trend of automakers investing in in-house technology to enhance their efficiency and performance. By developing these chips, Volkswagen aims to tailor its technology specifically for the needs of its Chinese customers, reflecting a significant step towards enhancing its autonomous vehicle capabilities.