> At a Glance
> – Chipmakers Nvidia and ARM are pitching “Physical AI” to car companies
> – Automotive AI chip market could hit $123 billion by 2032
> – CES 2024 saw flurry of hands-off driving promises from Ford, Mercedes, Sony-Honda
> > Why it matters: Your next car may think, see and drive itself, and chip firms want to power it
“Physical AI” sounds like sci-fi, but it’s the new battle cry for chipmakers hunting a $123 billion auto opportunity. At CES 2024, car and tech giants showed how robots, sensors and vehicles are merging into one intelligent, self-driving package.
What Counts as Physical AI
Physical AI means autonomous systems that perceive the real world through cameras and sensors, reason about what they see, then act-whether that’s a humanoid robot on Hyundai’s factory floor or your car handling the morning commute solo.
Marketing gloss aside, the label helps carmakers recast themselves as tech pioneers and gives chip companies a fresh revenue lane projected to grow 85 percent from 2023 to 2032.
Chipmakers Place Their Bets
- Nvidia launched open-source AI models aimed at autonomous machines
- ARM unveiled a new Physical AI division
- Both aim to sell the high-powered silicon that future vehicles need
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CES audiences:
> “This is already a giant business for us.”
Cars in the Spotlight
Ford pledged to sell a hands-off, eyes-off system by 2028. Mercedes will launch an Nvidia-powered hands-off setup in the U.S. this year, promising home-to-work autonomy later. Sony-Honda’s Afeela EV plans to drive itself in most situations, date still TBD, while Chinese giant Geely will use Nvidia chips for what it calls “high-level autonomous driving.”
Mark Wakefield, AlixPartners global auto lead, sizes up the stakes:
> “The central brain of the vehicle will now be quantum leaps bigger-hundreds of times as big-and that’s what they are selling into.”
Key Takeaways
- Chipmakers see cars as the next mega-market for AI silicon
- Automakers are racing to add ever-smarter autonomous features
- CES announcements show the timeline: some features arrive this year, full hands-off by 2028
- Physical AI is less a breakthrough than a branding tool for selling advanced silicon
Expect to hear “Physical AI” a lot more as your dashboard becomes a data center on wheels.
