“Physical AI” is coming to your car

Physical AI sounds Such a contradiction in terms. Computer but body?

But to marketing engineers, it’s the latest term of art, a buzzword meant to point us as citizens toward a bright and promising technological future.

Back here on Earth, this term is perhaps most useful as a way to understand how car companies think of themselves now: as technology pioneers. It’s also a useful shorthand for understanding how much the auto industry has an appetite for companies that make chips — what could be a $123 billion opportunity by 2032, up about 85 percent from 2023. The giant consumer technology show CES that just took place in Las Vegas always has its share of goofy robot demos, but this year’s presentations showed how the world of robots, cars and chips is increasingly growing.

First, to define (marketing) terms: “Physical AI” is how technology developers eventually hope autonomous systems will interact with the real world, by using camera and sensor data to truly understand and think about what is going on around them, and perform complex tasks to respond. Physical AIs are humanoid robots that do daily work at a Hyundai factory, as Google DeepMind, Boston Dynamics, and the Korean automaker have announced they will do in the coming months. It’s a car that drives itself in complex traffic situations, or undertakes a more complex task: seamlessly handing over control between a human driver and a software-driven driver. Physical AI allows autonomous systems such as cameras, robots, and self-driving cars to perceive, understand, reason, and execute or coordinate complex actions in the real world.

It is no coincidence that the companies making the most noise about physical AI are chip manufacturers, including Nvidia and ARM. The former announced a new, entirely open source line of AI models targeting autonomous systems; The latter debuted in the Physical AI section at CES. They stand to make a significant change in this trend.

Witness, for example, the display of autonomy-related announcements at CES, all of which will require some powerful computing resources on board.

Ford says it will sell a system that allows drivers to start their cars without looking at the road ahead by 2028. The Afeela, a battery-powered collaboration between Sony and Honda, will drive itself in most situations at some point, date TBD. Nvidia will supply chips for Chinese automaker Geely’s new intelligent driving system, which will eventually transition to what the company calls “high-level autonomous driving.” Nvidia is also involved in Mercedes-Benz’s new drive system, which will debut in the US this year. Ultimately, the company says the system should be able to drive between home and work without assistance. “This is really huge business for us,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said of self-driving cars during his presentation at CES.

“The vehicle’s central brain will now be quantum leaps larger – hundreds of times larger – and that’s what [chipmakers] “They’re selling their cars. They see a big future in these vehicles,” says Mark Wakefield, global auto market leader at consultancy AlixPartners.

No wonder marketers have found a new and exciting way to describe it.