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EV & AV
Where Is the Dividing Line Between AV

and ADAS?

By Junko Yoshida The Panelists:

Danny Shapiro, senior director of
hen automotive technology suppliers discuss ADAS and
AV, they often conflate the two, blurring the line between Automotive at Nvidia
them. We suspect this is intentional, if not downright
Wself-serving. After all, a “scalable solution” is the thing
today — it’s what everyone is after. Chet Babla, vice president of the
It does not take Elon Musk to popularize the myth that gradual Automotive Business at Arm
advancements in ADAS will eventually transform today’s ADAS vehicles
into tomorrow’s AVs. But will they?
At the Roadmap to Next-Gen EV & AV virtual conference, we Shelly Van Dyke, vice president and head
assembled a panel of leading automotive executives from the global of strategy for the Automotive Processing &
electronics industry to debate the dividing line between AV and ADAS. Automotive Segment at NXP Semiconductors
Danny Shapiro, senior director of automotive at Nvidia, was the
most vocal. He acknowledged that there is “a distinct break” between Doug Burcicki, senior director, Global
what will go into robotaxis “versus what’s going into ADAS systems on Automotive and Heavy Equipment, Integrated
modern cars.” But he added that “the fundamental software” deployed Electrical Systems Division of Siemens Digital
in a vehicle — “the ability to detect things, process that sensor data, run Industries
it through AI algorithms, understand the environment — is the same
regardless of the level of processing.” In his opinion, hardware creates
the break in the path from ADAS to AV, but software enables carmakers the software and services they can move from the cloud to the car. NXP
to follow an evolutionary “software upgradable” path. expects its relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to hold the
Doug Burcicki, senior director of Siemens Digital Industries, painted key to meeting carmakers’ needs, she said.
a more nuanced picture. “I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all Nvidia’s approach for future-proofing its own platform is
answer,” he said, because “this is not just a technology question. Socie- well-known. It intends “to put very powerful hardware and an AI super-
tal and business model questions must also be addressed.” computer inside the car and continue to develop the software to add
For Burcicki, “autonomous vehicles are at the end of a path … But I new features and new capabilities,” Shapiro said.
don’t think you necessarily go down an ADAS path to get to autono- But is convincing carmakers to adopt a pretty powerful compute
mous vehicles.” In other words, “better ADAS would not make a fully platform right off the bat a workable strategy for OEMs that are starting
autonomous vehicle.” with an ADAS design?
Remember that ADAS and AV “started in very different places,” said “Absolutely,” Shapiro said, pointing to Mercedes-Benz as an example.
Chet Babla, vice president of the automotive business at Arm. “The Under a collaboration agreement with Nvidia, he said, “every single Mer-
genesis was very different,” and those distinctions persist today in cedes in the future will have the exact same platform. They are putting
business models, monetization schemes, and the problems AVs are the most powerful system they can in the entry-level trim. I don’t know
intended to solve, he added. how they’re going to price it, but the goal is that you don’t necessarily
“What we are seeing [at Arm] is the need for scalable compute,” said need to activate all [of the features] when you buy that car.” Instead, over
Babla. “We see this in our discussions with OEMs and with Tier 1s. time, “you can add new features and capabilities on demand or on a sub-
Actually, we are hearing things like ‘bladed architecture,’ where OEMs scription basis, one-time fees — however it ends up coming to market.”
want to be able to put in a unit of compute capability and, as they deploy Burcicki agreed “100% with Danny [Shapiro] that the software-defined
in different scenarios, scale that up through this bladed approach. What vehicle is happening today,” but he believes the approach is best pursued
that absolutely needs is a common software framework.” by new players entering the automotive market with new business
models. For incumbents, it’s no small task. Switching to an entirely new
‘REALITY HAS SHIFTED’ architecture could require billions of dollars, at a time when the incum-
When Burcicki noted that some carmakers don’t want to put certain bents still have to build and operate their current vehicle lines.
hardware in vehicles that might not be needed in future AVs, Shapiro “I personally struggle with that business model … I wonder if that’s
charged him with “old-school thinking.” Automakers are embracing a profitable for a mass vehicle producer,” said Burcicki. Given the regula-
software-centric, software-upgradable architecture, Shapiro said. “The tory mandates on the horizon for EVs, he sees OEMs “prioritizing their
reality has already shifted.” spend internally” and “kicking the AV can down the road a little bit.”
In principle, many in the automotive industry might consider the Nvidia remains convinced of the new future for the automotive
software-defined vehicle an aspirational goal. In reality, companies will industry: “Five years from now, when we come back to do this panel
likely vary widely in how they straddle the ADAS-to-AV divide. Shelly again, the leaderboard of automakers will be fundamentally different,”
Van Dyke, vice president and head of automotive strategy at NXP, said said Shapiro. “No one is going to buy a phone today that you can’t get a
the company has looked at the 20 OEMs that are responsible for 90% software update for. That mindset will quickly flip to cars.” ■
to 95% of car production today. “We’ve identified at least 10 to 12 dif-
ferent paths they’re taking in terms of how they’re navigating between Junko Yoshida recently retired as global editor-in-chief of AspenCore.
these two axes [ADAS and AV] and how they plan to upgrade,” she said. This presentation summary appears as part of the proceedings of EE
Van Dyke nonetheless confirmed that software is on many OEMs’ Times’ Roadmap to Next-Gen EV & AV virtual conference, now available
minds. They’re dwelling not only on the software within the car but on for download on Power Electronics News.

www.eetimes.eu | JUNE 2021