Technology

and Computing
Requirements for
Self-Driving Cars

Moving beyond horsepower to deliver a new era of driving safety and convenience
Consumers now expect their connected digital lifestyles to extend into the car and their inside and outside worlds
to be aligned. It is an expectation that is both heightened and accelerated by the Internet of Things.
Automakers have responded, integrating new capabilities into the driving
experience thanks to the advent and proliferation of innovative in-vehicle
infotainment (IVI) technology. Today, capabilities like email, Facebook*, streaming
music, and many other features and applications have become increasingly
common, even in entry-level makes and models. As a result, the technology
that makes these functions possible has transitioned from being a source of
competitive differentiation for automakers into a standard feature found in
virtually every car.
At the same time, growing traffic challenges and congestion, an explosion in firsttime drivers, and an overall shift in priorities have sharpened the focus on safety.
This development, in combination with the near ubiquity of IVI, is motivating
the industry to pivot and concentrate its research and development efforts on
delivering production-ready, advanced safety functions and capabilities made
possible by todays technology.
Automakers are beginning to deliver improved driving safety and convenience
through the development of next-generation advanced driver assistance systems
(ADAS). Cars will become much safer and more efficient as they grow increasingly
aware of and react to the surrounding driving environment and conditions. Real
success will mean the democratization of ADAS in which the technology is available
in entry-level to premium vehicles, for first-time drivers to seniors, in passenger
and commercial vehicles, and everywhere in between. And sooner than we ever
thought, ADAS technology will deliver self-driving capabilities to production
automobiles.

The growing need for compute

Accelerating the delivery of next-generation, ADAS-enabled functionality should
be the immediate focus of automakers. And, as they begin to introduce these new
safety features, automakers must also be thinking ahead to lay the groundwork
for self-driving cars. Indeed, they are finding that they must rethink a great many
things about the car, including how the driver interacts with todays increasingly
intelligent car and how that car is designed and built. This will mean securing new
technology partners, developing a new supply chain strategy, and perhaps most
importantly, equipping the car with significantly greater computing power.

The evolution of the car:

Why it matters
As cars grow more intelligent
and more aware of their
surroundings, consumers will
expect increasingly sophisticated
safety, security and convenience
features and functions. These
can only be delivered through
the development of nextgeneration ADAS technology.
Successfully realizing the
enormous opportunities of these
automotive innovations has the
potential to not only change
drivingbut also to transform
society.
Prevent the majority of
all traffic accidents
Approximately 90 percent of
accidents are driver error1
Lower the death rate for
children under the age of
12Traffic accidents are the
leading cause of death among
children2
Decrease overall traffic
deathsAbout 1.3 million
people a year are killed in car
accidents3
Reduce the number injured
in car accidentsRoughly 50
million are seriously injured in
car accidents3
Reclaim lost productivity
American drivers spent 5.5
billion hours in their cars
in 20114
Save moneyTraffic
congestion costs drivers $121
billion in wasted time and fuel
a year, or about $818 each4

The automakers that lead the way

will quickly distinguish themselves
from their competition, winning both
customer loyalty and market share.
And because these innovations have
the potential to dramatically save
time, money, and lives, the first to
implement these next-generation ADAS
technologies could inspire a change
in thinking capable of transforming
society.

How the car is changing

Intel describes the trajectory of change
in the automobile as a three-step
process: Inform, Assist, Assume.
Heres how it works:
Inform
This step began with the introduction
of both IVI and first-generation
ADAS technologies. With the mobile
phone revolution, the cars in-vehicle
technologies became the focus of
differentiation for automakers. Drivers
wanted a way to seamlessly meld
their connected lifestyle with their car.
Along the way, the car grew ever more
connected, extending and amplifying
our digital lives. In addition to enhanced
IVI functionality, automakers also
introduced new safety features enabled
by first-generation ADAS technologies,
helping make driving safer. Meanwhile,
all this change led automakers into
new fields and disciplines more in line
with the development of consumer
electronics than automobiles.
Assist
As drivers have come to expect their
car to perform the functions of a digital
device, new demands have emerged.
Moving beyond IVI, ADAS technology
now delivers new capabilities that
actively assist the driver. These
new capabilities, ranging from lane
departure warning, adaptive cruise
control, and emergency braking, are
just the most recent examples of how
computing power is transforming
what cars can do, making driving safer
and more convenient. Once primarily
a mechanical device, the vehicle is
quickly evolving into a supercomputer
on wheels.

As a result, after years of advancement,

todays automotive computing systems
have now plateaued in their ability
to deliver increasing levels of safety
and convenience. The challenge is as
the level of functionality increases, so
does the level of required computer
processing, and todays automotive
computing suppliers are finding it
difficult to deliver semiconductor
technology able to meet these new
requirements. Offering the next
generation of safety functionality will
require the next generation of ADAS
technology, which can only be costeffectively delivered through the use
of the most advanced semiconductor
technology available.
Assume
Next-generation ADAS technology
promises to deliver unprecedented
levels of safety and convenience. The
car will truly become a platform with
multiple ADAS technologies aggregated
into a single system, one that is able
to communicate, collaborate, and
ultimately fulfill the human driving
functions in almost all driving situations
(e.g., parking, city driving, freeway
driving). But as noted above, these new
capabilities will require automakers
to find suppliers able to deliver
automotive computing solutions that
provide performance more akin to
todays datacenter servers than the
smartphone-based technologies used
to date.

Making the most of

emerging opportunities
Sensors, cameras, and more
To enable next-generation ADAS
and ultimately realize the promise
of self-driving vehiclescars will
need numerous sensors to gather
the necessary information about
the drivers constantly changing
surroundings and the ability to fuse
the data (~1gb/sec) from these various
sensors in order to make safe decisions.
The sensors will be part of a larger
constellation of technologies that
include light detection and ranging
(lidar), radar, advanced camera
technologies, and GPS, among others.

It Starts with Convenience

and Ends with Safety

Assist

The Road to Autonomous Driving

Self
Driving

System
Functionality

Electromechanical
Safety

Inform

Adaptive cruise
control
Emergency
braking
Lane keeping

Assume
Self-driving

Morgan Stanley estimates that

self-driving vehicles could
deliver the following:

Lane departure
In-Vehicle
Blind spot
Infotainment

Air bags
Electronic
Stability
Control
ABS

Development
Integration

Parking assist

$1.3 trillion in annual savings

to the U.S. economy

Compute requirements increase

with system functionality

Safe
Driving

100

32-bit
MCU

1000

10,000

Compute (DMIPS)

Reliability, security, and speed

The burden of many operational
decisions that were once the domain of
the driver is increasingly being shifted
to the vehicle. At the same time, we
are moving from an immersive user
interface that draws a driver into the
driving experience, to an assistive user
interface that anticipates a drivers
needs and assists in making driving
safer. Ultimately, the interface will
assume control of the car to ensure the
driver and the cars occupants remain
safe. The cars ability to manage these
changes, and the enormous amount of
data enabling critical driving decisions,
is paramount. Reliability, security,
and real-time decision making are
non-negotiable necessities for the
next generation of car technology, as
a fraction of a second can mean the
difference between life and death.
The car must compute to compete
With the development and
deployment of next-generation ADAS
technologiesand self-driving vehicles
in the not too distant futureit is
important to look at how the collective
set of systems within the car can deliver
a better experience versus approaching
the car as a handful of independent
technologies.
Over the past few years, automakers
have largely relied on a vehicles
IVI system to enable and deliver
automotive innovation. Some in the

The economic impact of

the self-driving car5

100,000

1,000,000

Numbers are for illustrative purposes only

and do not represent actual measurements

industry suggest these systems are

sufficient to satisfy the compute
requirements that enable nextgeneration ADAS technology. But
the reality is that current IVI systems
do not offer the requisite processing
abilities. And while IVI will continue to
play an important role in the vehicles
ecosystem, tomorrows cars will require
a level of computing not currently
available in any of todays automobiles,
though already widely used in
advanced computers.

Enabling ADAS and self-driving

cars: The top 5 requirements
1. Greater computing power
In order to fully realize the
opportunities of next-generation ADAS
technology, the car will require more
computing muscle. Put another way,
the intelligent car will need a bigger
brain, meaning new hardware and
new software.
Approximately 1 GB of data will need
to be processed each second in the
cars real-time operating system. This
data will need to be analyzed quickly
enough that the vehicle can react to
changes in its surroundings in less than
a second. Consider that the cars brain
will demand new levels of compute to
figure out when, how hard, and how fast
to brake based on analysis of a range
of variables, from the vehicles speed
to the road conditions to surrounding
traffic. It will successfully gauge the

$507 billion in annual

productivity gains
$158 billion in annual fuel cost
savings
$488 billion in annual accident
cost reduction savings
$11 billion in annual savings
from reducing congestion
$138 billion in annual
productivity savings from less
congestion

flow of traffic to merge onto a freeway

and account for the unpredictable
behavior of pedestrians, bicyclists, and
other cars while in the city. And that is
just the beginning.
2. A reliable supply chain
Just as the brain of the car is
changing so too must the supply
chain automakers rely on to source,
build, deliver, and service the vehicle.
Collaboration will be more critical than
ever. To meet these new demands,
many automakers are already working
with new partners and engaging
with current partners in new ways.
Specifically, semiconductor companies
delivering leading-edge silicon
promise to be important players. As
the entire supply chain evolves, those
who collaborate with these leading
technology companies and help lead
the change will be in the best position
to compete and succeed.
3. A centralized approach
Currently, new technologies added
to the car often come with their
own computer and software.
Such a situation has spawned a
distributed-computing approach that
accommodates this growing ecosystem

of embedded control units (ECUs). But

with each new addition, the complexity
and cost increase, as do the challenges
for the automaker to manage so many
disparate systems. As the industry
moves toward offering more advanced
driving experiences to consumers, such
a strategy will no longer be supportable
and automakers will see many benefits
in returning to a more centralized
model to enable self-driving cars.
4. A small, low-power solution
While the processors in tomorrows
cars must deliver increasing computing
power, they also must do so as
efficiently as possible. Automakers have
determined that all of this computing
muscle needs to be located in the
safest location in the carunder the
drivers seat. In order to meet this
requirement, while keeping passengers
comfortable, they will have to use
semiconductors, which both provide
very high processing capabilities and
use very little power.
5. Security and privacy
Consumers have an expectation of
privacy and security in their cars.
Vehicles with next-generation ADAS
(and ultimately self-driving capabilities)
will largely rely upon data that is
generated from sources within the
vehicle, and thus are less vulnerable

to threats that can arise when data

is transmitted externally. However,
given that a cars IVI system regularly
gets data from external sources (e.g.,
the Web, CDs, and other sources), it is
imperative that it ensure that the data
is free from any malicious intent. This is
especially important as the IVI system
will also function as the vehicles user
interface (UI).
For self-driving vehicles, it remains
critical that the growing volumes
of data transmitted to, from, and
within the vehicle are safe. The
vehicle will need to rely on its data
and the source of that data to make
quick, accurate decisionsand to
prevent, identify, and isolate malicious
threats. This underscores the need
to move the automobiles compute
architecture from a decentralized
approach with numerous discrete
technologies to one that relies on
a more homogeneous system. The
automotive industrys ability to
respond to these requirements will help
determine how quickly technological
advancements can be rolled out to
consumers. Technology companies with
established track records of addressing
these challenges are critical partners in
helping enable auto industry success.

The future is waiting

The gathering momentum of nextgeneration ADAS technology will
revolutionize both the automobile itself
and the auto industry. A handful of
automakers have already committed
to introducing self-driving vehicles as
early as 2020.
But they cannot do it alone.
Collaboration will be the engine that
drives the transformation as car
makers nurture relationships with
the right technology companies that
bring track records of experience
addressing these key challenges from
compute to security. Together with
these technology partners, the most
competitive automakers will lead
the way in defining the future of the
industryand the driving experience.

Shaping the future of the automobile through technology innovation

From in-vehicle infotainment to autonomous driving, Intel is using its proven expertise and R&D in computing
technology, automotive systems, and consumer electronics to help automotive industry partners accelerate
the evolution of connected, intelligent vehicles.

Learn more
For more about Intel automotive solutions, visit intel.com/automotive.

1. Human error as a cause of vehicle crashes, Bryant Walker Smith, The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, December 18, 2013: http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/
blog/2013/12/human-error-cause-vehicle-crashes.
2. Traffic Safety Facts, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 2003: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/809762.pdf.
3. Road traffic injuries, World Health Organization, March 2013: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs358/en/.
4. Sitting In Traffic Cost Americans $818 On Average In 2011: Report, Huffington Post, available at www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/05/cost-of-sitting-in-traffic_n_2621628.
5. See Self-driving Cars: Self-Driving the New Auto Industry Paradigm, Morgan Stanley Research (Nov. 6, 2013), available at http://www.morganstanley.com/public/11152013.html.
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