Editor | Zhang Lianyi

This CES was yet another showcase brimming with imagination.

From January 7 to 10, local time, the 2025 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2025) arrived as anticipated. After two years of rapid development, AI technology is making strides towards practical applications, and players in the automotive industry flexed their muscles.

Particularly with the implementation of "AI+Hardware," the automotive sector's imagination has soared even higher. From entertainment to travel, from the ground to space, their reach extends beyond cars to encompass various modes of transportation. That fascinating world seems just around the corner.

01 NVIDIA Leads the Charge as Chip Companies Increase Investments in Automotive Business

Dressed in leather, Huang Renxun, the founder of the leading AI chip company NVIDIA, fired the opening shot at CES.

A pivotal part of his speech emphasized, "NVIDIA's chips are not just the brain of cars but also the soul driving future intelligent travel."

In Huang's view, the autonomous driving market holds immense potential. In the coming years, approximately 100 million cars will be produced globally annually, with 1 billion cars on the road. If all these vehicles achieve advanced autonomous driving, it could become a trillion-dollar industry.

Huang Renxun, Founder of NVIDIA

He predicts that in such a vast market, NVIDIA's automotive business is expected to reach $5 billion by fiscal year 2026.

As of October 27, 2024, NVIDIA's automotive business segment revenue was approximately $1.4 billion, implying a potential tripling of automotive revenue in the next year.

To this end, NVIDIA announced a series of product advancements to accelerate the progress of intelligent vehicles.

First, the long-awaited "Thor" processor has finally entered mass production, boasting 20 times the computing power of the previous generation Orin.

Thor, an SoC chip unveiled by NVIDIA at the GTC Fall Conference in September 2022, is designed for the central computing architecture of vehicles, transcending mere autonomous driving chips.

NVIDIA Thor can be configured in multiple modes

He also announced that its autonomous driving platform, NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Hyperion, has passed industry safety assessments, making it the first and only end-to-end autonomous driving platform in the industry. The latest generation of DRIVE Hyperion, tailored for passenger and commercial vehicles, will adopt Thor chips and launch in the first half of this year.

Secondly, the highly anticipated Blackwell chip, which faced delays, has commenced full production.

In March 2024, NVIDIA introduced the new-generation AI chip architecture Blackwell, featuring 208 billion transistors—more than double the 80 billion transistors of the previous-generation "Hopper" chip, supporting AI models with up to 10 trillion parameters.

Initially expected to ship in Q2 2024, Blackwell faced several delays due to various issues.

This time, Huang Renxun confirmed that Blackwell is in full production, with almost all cloud service providers having deployed related systems.

Huang Renxun showcasing the Blackwell architecture chip

In his view, this generation of Blackwell chips offers a fourfold improvement in performance per watt and a threefold boost in computing power per dollar compared to the previous generation. This translates to training larger models at the same computing cost or training models of the same scale at a lower cost.

Furthermore, Huang Renxun unveiled NVIDIA's new foundational world model, Cosmos.

He pointed out that the development of physical AI models, such as those for autonomous driving and robots, is costly and requires extensive real data and testing. The Cosmos World Foundational Model (WFM) can generate physics-based videos based on inputs like text, images, videos, and sensor or motion data, simulating complex scenarios like extreme weather and traffic jams. These realistic synthetic data can be utilized to train and evaluate existing models.

In Huang's view, akin to large language models, the foundational world model serves as the cornerstone driving the advancement of robots and autonomous vehicles.

With the mass production of a suite of products, NVIDIA's "circle of friends" in the automotive domain has further expanded.

NVIDIA's "Automotive Legion"

At the event, Huang Renxun highlighted the collaboration with Toyota. Reportedly, the two parties will build the next-generation of vehicles based on NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin, running the NVIDIA DriveOS operating system.

Moreover, Huang Renxun mentioned that NVIDIA is collaborating with nearly all major automakers globally, including Waymo and Zoox for autonomous driving, Tesla for data centers, Aurora and Continental for commercial fleets, and BYD, Zeekr, and Mercedes-Benz for passenger vehicles.

Witnessing NVIDIA's widespread success, Intel couldn't sit idly by.

At CES 2024, Intel made a grand entrance into the automotive market, focusing on three key areas: smart cockpit chips, electric vehicle energy AI management, and an open automotive chip customization platform. It also unveiled the first-generation AI-enhanced software-defined in-vehicle SoC.

Intel made a high-profile announcement of automotive chips at CES 2024

At this CES, Jack Weast, Vice President of Intel Corporation, announced that the product would ship in large quantities in Q1 2025.

Simultaneously, Intel introduced two new products tailored for the automotive market.

The first is the Intel Adaptive Control Unit (ACU).

As a novel processing unit, ACU U310 supports the integration of multiple real-time, safety-critical, and cybersecurity functions, applications, and domains into a single chip. It adjusts high voltage and control frequency automatically based on the driver's style and road conditions, thereby reducing the vehicle's energy demand on the battery.

The second is the Intel Arc B-series onboard independent graphics card (codename Battlemage).

Jack Weast stated that this solution provides high-performance computing to support advanced onboard AI workloads, offering a next-generation human-machine interface, a more immersive in-car experience, and a 3A-level PC gaming experience.

Intel plans to introduce the AI PC software ecosystem into vehicles

Furthermore, Intel jointly launched the AWS-based Intel Automotive Virtual Design Environment with Amazon's cloud computing platform AWS.

Its value lies in ensuring true hardware and software consistency from cloud to vehicle, aiding in solving various challenges in the vehicle development lifecycle. It enables engineers to seamlessly switch between virtual and physical hardware settings, helping manufacturers reduce R&D costs and time-to-market.

Relatively, Qualcomm's automotive presence at this CES seemed less ambitious, without new product announcements. However, it unveiled a series of nearly ten latest cooperation advancements based on the Snapdragon Digital Chassis solution, including partnerships with Zeekr, Leap Motor, Garmin, Panasonic Automotive Systems, Amazon, and other enterprises, spanning digital cockpits, intelligent driving, two-wheelers, and other fields.

Besides international giants, domestic chip company Black Sesame Technology also participated in this CES. It publicly unveiled the Huashan A2000 series chip sample for the first time, an AI chip designed for next-generation AI algorithms to enable intelligent driving across all scenarios.

Black Sesame Technology's Huashan A2000 family of products

According to the introduction, the Huashan A2000 family comprises three chips: A2000 (suitable for high-speed and urban NOA), A2000 Lite (supporting basic ADAS), and A2000 Pro (supporting full autonomous driving). All are manufactured using 7nm technology and equipped with the "Jiushao" NPU core independently developed by Black Sesame Technology. Alongside the new-generation universal AI tool chain BaRT and dual-chiplet interconnection technology BLink, it can perform desensitization, compression, encoding, and storage of vehicle data while intelligent driving functions operate normally.

02 From BMW to Geely: More Intelligent Technologies on Vehicles

With the support of increasingly powerful chips, automakers have more imagination and operational space, particularly foreign brands, which have showcased their strengths.

BMW led the way by globally unveiling the new-generation ultra-sensing smart cockpit—BMW's pioneering Panorama iDrive and BMW's new-generation operating system X.

BMW launches Panorama iDrive

BMW's pioneering Panorama iDrive employs four core interactive interfaces working in coordination, incorporating four new technologies: eye-level panoramic display, 3D head-up display, ultra-sensing intelligent steering wheel, and centripetal center console. It projects information directly onto the front windshield, replacing the traditional instrument cluster.

This technology is set to debut on BMW's new-generation models by the end of 2025 and subsequently be equipped on more future BMW models.

BMW's new-generation operating system X is tailored for the Chinese market. BMW revealed that 70% of its source code was developed and optimized in China, with its underlying logic more aligned with Chinese users' habits.

Honda and Hyundai have also focused on smart cars.

Honda unveiled two electric vehicle prototypes from the "Honda0" series: the Salon electric sedan and the Space-Hub electric SUV.

Honda unveils two electric prototypes from the "Honda0" series

The "Honda 0" series of electric vehicles are equipped with the ASIMO OS operating system, named after Honda's previously developed humanoid robot. It enables OTA upgrades by integrating advanced driver assistance, entertainment, and wireless updates.

In the future, the "Honda 0" series of electric vehicles will introduce L3-level autonomous driving functions, enabling eye-off technology during highway congestion. Additionally, this series will use autonomous driving software jointly developed by Honda and Helm.AI to achieve AI autonomous learning with less data and broaden the scope of autonomous driving applications.

The two new models are planned for production at Honda's EV Center in Ohio, USA, in 2026. The electric SUV will launch first in North America in early 2026 and gradually enter other markets like Japan and Europe.

On the other hand, Hyundai introduced a holographic wide windshield display spanning from the driver's seat to the passenger area, offering a panoramic immersive experience and real-time driving information. This is expected to gradually be applied to vehicles starting in 2027.

While foreign automakers have been making moves, domestic automakers have responded accordingly.

Geely releases all-domain AI for smart cars

Focusing on AI, Geely comprehensively built and released the "All-Domain AI for Smart Cars" technology system, encompassing AI applications like AI Galaxy Elf, Boundless Space, AI Cloud Power, AI Picture Book, and AI Sentinel. This connects the smart cockpit, advanced intelligent driving, and the entire automotive intelligent ecosystem through AI.

Its sub-brand Zeekr also made four significant announcements covering strategy, technology, and products.

In the cockpit realm, it collaborates with Qualcomm. For intelligent driving, Zeekr unveiled the world's first mass-produced self-developed high-computing intelligent driving control platform compatible with NVIDIA DRIVE Thor chips. It also revealed its overseas 800V ultra-fast charging plan, with Zeekr's charging system gradually being implemented overseas. Concurrently, the Zeekr RT, jointly developed with Waymo, as the first mass-produced native autonomous vehicle, will commence large-scale deliveries this year.

Great Wall Motors, making its CES debut, has even equipped its motorcycles with AI chips.

At the event, Great Wall Motors showcased its globally unique horizontally opposed 8-cylinder 8-speed motorcycle, the Soul S2000.

Great Wall Motors Soul S2000 Motorcycle

Introducing the Soul S2000, a vehicle that embodies the Chinese element of the awakening lion style and boasts a groundbreaking combination: the world's first 8-cylinder engine paired with an 8-speed transmission, alongside an intelligent system. This powerhouse can reach a top speed of 210 km/h, all while weighing just 425 pounds. Additionally, the Soul S2000 is equipped with a state-of-the-art 12.3-inch touchscreen, enabling seamless voice control, automated parking, and blind spot assistance, making cornering safer and more convenient.

The theme of "Sea, Land, and Air" converges at CES, highlighting the growing trend of embodied robots.

As a technology showcase, automakers are not content with merely exhibiting cars; they are now envisioning a broader spectrum of lifestyle possibilities. XPeng Motors' subsidiary, XPeng Huitian, made its debut at CES with the "Land Aircraft Carrier," an innovative flying car that exemplifies this vision. With its unique split design, it functions both as a car with a rear compartment capable of housing a "plane" and as a "plane" that can be stored within a car, offering both terrestrial and aerial mobility.

XPeng Huitian's "Land Aircraft Carrier" on display at CES

Toyota's ambitions extend even further, with its future strategy focused on the development and production of smart city models and orbital rockets. In 2020, Toyota Motor Corporation unveiled the concept of "Woven City," a sustainable metropolis that showcases artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, autonomous vehicles, and smart homes in real-world settings.

At this year's CES, Toyota officially announced the completion of the first phase of "Woven City," with the first residents set to arrive in fall 2025. This experimental city, built around the concept of future mobility and smart living, is gradually taking shape.

Toyota announces completion of the first phase of "Woven City"

Furthermore, Toyota plans to invest 7 billion yen (approximately RMB 320 million) in the Japanese space startup Interstellar Technologies Inc., reinforcing its strategic commitment to the space industry.

Behind the continuous expansion of automotive businesses lies a resolute shift towards becoming future mobility technology companies. This naturally encompasses the current hottest trend: "embodied intelligent humanoid robots."

Leading the charge are supply chain partners. Prior to CES, RoboSense held the "Hello Robot" 2025 AI Robot Global Conference, unveiling its comprehensive robot technology platform company strategy. At the exhibition, RoboSense also officially showcased its self-developed humanoid robot, designed as a development platform for universal robot components.

Simultaneously, it exhibited a range of new robotic components and solutions, including three digital LiDARs suitable for automotive and robotic applications, a novel robotic vision solution called Active Camera, an end-to-end intelligent system named Robo FSD, and the second-generation dexterous hand, Papert 2.0.

RoboSense Humanoid Robot

As a pioneering LiDAR company, Hesai Technology also released the JT series of miniature 3D LiDARs tailored for robotics, with applications spanning automated guided vehicles, autonomous mobile robots, unmanned delivery vehicles, lawnmower robots, cleaning robots, agricultural robots, smart ports, factories, and static perception.

Jensen Huang even foresaw that the field of robotics, particularly humanoid robots and universal robotics technology, is on the brink of a breakthrough akin to the ChatGPT phenomenon, potentially becoming the world's largest technology industry. "The world will witness 1 billion humanoid robots, 10 million automated factories, and 1.5 billion autonomous vehicles and trucks, ushering in countless business opportunities," Huang predicted.

As CES 2025 draws to a close, the horizon beckons with a world of even greater possibilities.