‘Physical AI’ Is Coming for Your Car

AI Physical Sounds as a contradiction in terms. A computer, but a body?

But for marketing architects, it’s the latest buzzword, a buzzword meant to point us citizens toward a bright and promising technological future.

Here on Earth, the term is perhaps most useful for understanding how automakers currently view themselves: as technology pioneers. It’s also a handy shortcut to understanding how appetizing the auto industry is for companies that make chips – which could represent a $123 billion opportunity by 2032, an 85% increase from 2023. The giant CES consumer technology showcase just held in Las Vegas always has its share of wacky robot demonstrations, but this year’s presentations showed just how world of robots, cars and chipsets is getting closer and closer.

First, to define (marketing) terms: “Physical AI” is how technology developers hope autonomous systems will interact with the real world, using data from cameras and sensors to truly understand and reason about what’s happening around them, and perform complex tasks in response. Physical AI consists of humanoid robots that do a day’s work in the Hyundai factory, as Google DeepMind, Boston Dynamics and the Korean automaker announced they will do in the coming months. This is a car that drives itself in complex traffic situations, or takes on an arguably more complicated task: seamlessly transferring control between a human driver and a software-driven driver. Physical AI enables autonomous systems such as cameras, robots, and self-driving cars to perceive, understand, reason, and perform or orchestrate complex actions in the real world.

It’s no coincidence that the companies making the most noise when it comes to physical AI are chipmakers, including Nvidia and ARM. The former announced a whole new open source range of AI models targeting autonomous systems; the latter launched a physics AI division at CES. They are ready to bring a significant change to the trend.

This is evidenced, for example, by the parade of announcements related to autonomy at CES, all of which will require powerful on-board computing resources.

Ford says it will sell a system that will allow drivers to drive their vehicles 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 to be determined. Nvidia will supply the chips for Chinese automaker Geely’s new “intelligent driving system,” which will eventually advance to what the company calls “high-level autonomous driving.” Nvidia is also involved in Mercedes-Benz’s new hands-free driving system, which will debut in the United States this year. Ultimately, the company says the system should be able to travel between home and work without assistance. “It’s already a giant undertaking for us,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said of self-driving cars during his CES presentation.

“The central brain of the vehicle will now be bigger – hundreds of times bigger – and that’s what [chipmakers] “They sell,” says Mark Wakefield, head of global automotive market at AlixPartners. “They see a big future in these vehicles.”

No wonder their marketers found a sexy new way to describe it.