Automotive Intelligence on the Rise: Intel Joins the 2025 Shanghai Auto Show

【PCauto】At the 2025 Shanghai International Automotive Industry Exhibition, Intel, typically known as a chip manufacturer, made its debut at the auto show, driven by the surging interest in automotive intelligence. The company recognized a crucial opportunity to engage with this emerging trend.

During the event, Intel unveiled its second-generation AI-enhanced Software Defined Vehicle (SDV) System-on-Chip (SoC). Leveraging Intel's unique Chiplet Architecture design, the company provides automakers with a flexible "building block" framework. This allows manufacturers to tailor computing, graphics, and AI function modules based on their vehicle positioning, market demands, and technology strategies.

The advantages of this customization model are multi-faceted. From a performance perspective, the second-generation product shows remarkable improvements in generative and multimodal AI capabilities—boasting up to a tenfold increase compared to the previous Malibu Lake chip.

Graphics performance also excels, with enhancements of up to three times. This level of performance enables vehicles to deliver a smoother, more refined, and immersive experience when running AI applications and presenting human-machine interfaces.

For example, in smart voice interaction scenarios, vehicles can quickly and accurately comprehend and execute complex voice commands from users. In graphics-related applications, such as 3D navigation maps and interior ambiance rendering, clarity, color accuracy, and smoothness will see significant improvements.

Moreover, the chip supports 12 camera channels, greatly enhancing the vehicle's visual perception and image processing capabilities, providing the necessary data foundation for the precise operation of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).

Jack Weast, Intel Fellow, Vice President, and General Manager of the Automotive Division, stated, “Intel is committed to leading a new era of automotive computing with the second-generation AI-enhanced SDV SoC. This SoC integrates the flexibility of the Chiplet Architecture with Intel's profound expertise in complete vehicle solutions. Our aim is to collaborate with industry partners to tackle core challenges in the automotive sector, such as improving energy efficiency and advancing AI-driven driving experiences, accelerating the arrival of the software-defined vehicle era and creating greater value for the industry and end users.”

At the auto show, Intel actively sought more partners. The company collaborated with Black Sesame Technologies to launch a cabin-driving integration platform that combines Intel's AI-enhanced SDV SoC with Black Sesame's Huashan A2000 and Wudang C1200 chip families.

This powerful computation capability surpasses single-chip solutions, fully meeting the smart driving needs of automakers from L2+ to L4 levels, as well as enhancing interactive cabin experiences.

The platform’s openness, flexibility, and high extensiveness allow for one-time design adaptations across different vehicle models, significantly simplifying the development process.

The two companies plan to release a reference design for the cabin-driving integration platform in the second quarter of 2025 and are fully committed to advancing mass-production preparations.

Intel has also established a strategic partnership with ModelBest, leveraging Intel's robust hardware computing power and memory advantages alongside ModelBest's efficient inference and real-time response capabilities of high-knowledge-dense edge models. This intelligent agent offers users a wealth of practical features.

For instance, the offline voice command recognition function allows users in areas with poor network signals to interact smoothly with the vehicle, achieving precise control even under challenging conditions.

In complex dialogue scenarios, this intelligent agent can accurately parse language structure and context, comprehensively understanding natural voice commands, making human-machine interactions smoother and more natural, easing communication during the driving experience.

Intel also announced a collaboration with the South Korean semiconductor company BOS Semiconductors to deliver exceptional AI performance in the fields of advanced driver-assistance systems and in-car infotainment.

With the assistance of BOS Automotive AI Accelerator Chiplet SoC Eagle-N and other products, Intel's AI-enhanced software-defined SoC aims to establish higher performance and computing power for automotive manufacturers, laying a solid foundation for in-car AI applications.

Intel’s active presence at the Shanghai Auto Show, highlighted by the launch of the second-generation AI-enhanced SDV SoC and a series of strategic partnerships, showcases its strength and determination in the smart automotive sector. As these innovative technologies and collaborative achievements gradually come to fruition, the automotive industry may well witness a comprehensive revolution in performance and user experience.