The perception, prediction, and planning functions in an autonomous vehicle require a vast amount of computing horsepower that is best served by a heterogeneous complex of traditional CPUs for general purpose compute plus domain-specific processors, such as machine learning (ML) neural processing units (NPUs), for numerically intensive workloads. As the level of autonomy rises, the more information is required, resulting in more sensor information that needs to be processed in a fast, efficient, safe and secure manner.
Current AV prototypes are using datacentre-like processing to get the performance needed, but as companies look to a deployment strategy it is becoming clear that right-size heterogeneous compute is what is needed in order to tackle the power-dissipation challenges of the compute levels required for AVs. A fundamental part of this is getting the right AI technologies to be able to process the autonomous workloads in an efficient way, applying inference processing in the vehicle to process real-time sensor information using pre-built models for correct object and situational recognition. The correctness of this processing in a real-time situation will dramatically effect both the safety and security of the AV, as it will be able to not just understand the situation, and make a safe decision, but it can also watch out for anomalies caused by potential security attacks.
This AI processing has to be scalable with functional safety characteristics that allow the autonomous drive computer to process the sensor information, make the correct decisions, and then safely plot and implement a course of action. Security also needs to be built into this compute complex, to ensure that both the hardware and software are not compromised by a malicious attack, and that sensor information is not spoofed. This applies to all the compute and software elements including CPUs, OSes, NPUs, and applications through to AI and associated models.
At Arm we are focusing on bringing right-size heterogeneous compute to AVs using high-performance Cortex-A CPUs with built-in functional safety features, and our powerful, efficient NPUs for AI processing, coupled with our security modules to protect the compute complex.