Chinese EV makers bet on in-house chips to make cars smarter and more autonomous

Chinese EV makers are displaying their technological advances in in-car chips at the Auto China show in Beijing. Xpeng, Nio, and lidar sensor producer Hesai Group are showcasing their in-house chips, which boast computing power on par with Nvidia's products. Hesai's CEO David Li Yifan stated that designing and making their own chips is necessary to cater to their specific needs in developing lidar sensors. Xpeng's Turing chip is three times more powerful than Nvidia's Drive Orin X for level 4 autonomous driving capabilities. The development of in-house chips is driven by the high demand for computing power in smart vehicles, which rely on artificial intelligence and digital technologies to become more autonomous and comfortable. A system-on-chip (SoC) processes data from a vehicle's cameras and sensors, offering strong computing power to support intelligent features.