Like it or not, you will soon own a vehicle equipped with artificial intelligence

The proliferation of vehicles equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) is being driven by the growth in popularity of two key features: infotainment systems and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Not only have these two technologies been embraced by the general consumer, they’re fast becoming an expectation among prospective buyers of new vehicles. 

This has led to an increased complexity of the vehicle’s internal systems which, in turn, has led to a growth in need for hardware and software solutions that support AI in these cars. The reason why AI is being incorporated is to more efficiently utilize the vehicle’s electronics and software, and emulate the functions of the human brain — that is, it will be making sense of all the complex behind-the-scenes operations that the vehicle’s systems need to determine so that its human operator needn’t spend a second’s thought on it. 

The total number of unit shipments of AI systems used in infotainment and ADAS systems totaled at 7 million in 2015; by 2025, it’s projected to be 122 million. Additionally, the attach rate of AI systems in new vehicles was 8% last year; in the next decade, that’s expected to rise to 109%, as there’s projected to be multiple AI systems of many different types installed in several lines of vehicles. 

All numbers and projects are per the Automotive Electronics Roadmap Report. 

Where AI will become most noticeable in the vehicle is the human-machine interface between the operator and the car’s infotainment system; specifically, in the form of speech recognition, gesture recognition, eye tracking, driver monitoring, virtual assistance, and natural language interfaces. 

Perhaps a bit less in the driver’s face, AI will also be prevalent with ADAS and autonomous vehicles; specifically, with camera-based machine vision systems, radar-based detection units, driver condition evaluation, and sensor fusion engine control units. 

Several vehicles are presently equipped with infotainment systems that have speech recognition technologies which rely on algorithms based on neural networks running in the cloud. As far as ADAS, there are cars available that implement neural network functionality to support autonomous driving. 

While the issues hindering wide-scale implementation of vehicle-based AI is mostly related to the high cost and size of the computers needed to perform these advanced tasks, there’s been tremendous progress made in terms of manufacturing smaller computers and components. So, it seems all but inevitable that if you are planning on buying a vehicle in the next 10 years, you’ll be purchasing one that is equipped with some level of artificial intelligence.