Auto titans descended on CES 2025 with a clear message: the future of driving hinges on intelligence, not just horsepower. The automotive industry’s transformation from mechanical engineering to software dominance took center stage as manufacturers revealed breakthrough technologies that blur the line between vehicle and computer.
Autonomous driving platforms demonstrated remarkable progress through custom silicon. Rivian developed its in-house autonomy platform using a custom chip on Arm’s compute platform. Tesla’s AI5 chip delivers 40x faster AI performance than its predecessor, while NVIDIA’s DRIVE Thor platform powers WeRide’s Level 4 Robotaxi GXR. Sony’s Afeela prototype 2026 SUV pushes boundaries further with Level 4 autonomous mode featuring a folding steering wheel. Meanwhile, autonomy specialists like Nuro, Wayve, and Zoox continue refining their services in defined operational zones. Choosing scalable API-led architectures helps these platforms integrate with broader vehicle ecosystems and services.
AI-powered cockpits emerged as the next battleground for driver experience. Bosch revealed an AI-based cockpit that personalizes vehicle environments using large language models for natural communication. The system’s visual language model interprets events both inside and outside the vehicle, automates parking searches, and creates meeting minutes from online calls. Bosch’s commitment includes investing over 2.5 billion euros in AI by 2027. HERE and Amazon partnered to enable AI-powered navigation with Alexa Custom Assistant for conversational experiences.
The shift toward software control accelerated through by-wire systems. Bosch’s brake-by-wire and steer-by-wire replace mechanical connections with electrical signals, expected to generate over 7 billion euros in cumulative sales by 2032. These systems enable new design freedoms and enhanced safety in automated driving. ZF’s Chassis 2.0 incorporates AI Road Sense, fusing chassis data for intelligent actuator control. Texas Instruments introduced the TDA5 family of high-performance computing SoCs delivering up to 1,200 TOPS of edge AI performance with Arm Cortex-A720AE cores supporting vehicle autonomy up to SAE Level 3.
Sensor technology reached new precision levels. Bosch’s Radar Gen 7 Premium detects small objects like pallets beyond 200 meters with maximum angular precision for freeway pilot assistance. ZF’s AI Road Sense Premium uses lidar for road surface scanning 80 feet ahead with inch-level accuracy, demonstrating how hardware and software converge to create smarter, safer vehicles. Development workflows are accelerating through digital twin technologies, with tools like Siemens PAVE360™ enabling automakers to simulate and validate autonomous systems before production deployment.
