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MediaTek wants to bring its phone tech to cars, and Nvidia’s going to help

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A mockup of the MediaTek and Nvidia platform for cars.

MediaTek is best known for its smartphone chips that power phones like the OnePlus Nord N300, Asus ROG Phone 6D, and plenty more. But it’s now eyeing greater involvement in the automotive industry andwill use the expertise it has gained from these devices.

At the Computex 2023 trade show, MediaTek announced the Dimensity Auto platform and a partnership with Nvidia — and the pair will soon showcase their collective strengths in cars around the world.

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MediaTek doesn’t only make chips for phones. Many commonplace devices in the smart home use MediaTek processors, including many smart TVs, Amazon’s Alexa devices, and the Peloton exercise bike. But mobile has played a large part in its belief that it can find success in cars too, as it will use many of the things it has learned working on phones inside vehicles.

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For example, MediaTek’s Dimensity Auto Connect system will bring 5G connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and satellite connections to cars — all of which it already works on in phones. While the vessel may be different, the underlying tech isn’t all that far apart. The Dimensity Auto Cockpit system will use the technology MediaTek incorporates into its televisions, phone displays, and image signal processors (ISP) used for phone cameras.

Through its GPU and AI expertise, Nvidia is already heavily involved in the automotive world and will work with MediaTek on Dimensity Auto. The in-car infotainment systems produced will also use Nvidia’s Drive OS software. It’s going to pay particular attention to the Dimensity Auto Drive system and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). MediaTek is also involved with cars at the moment, but not to the extent it intends to be. According to the company, the new push will integrate many of its existing solutions into one new system, and the partnership with Nvidia helps it to prepare for the future in the rapidly changing industry.

A mockup of the MediaTek Dimensity Auto chipset.

“The combination of MediaTek’s industry-leading system-on-chip and Nvidia’s GPU and AI software technologies will enable new user experiences, enhanced safety, and new connected services for all vehicle segments, from luxury to entry-level,” said Nvidia’s CEO and founder Jensen Huang.

MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai added: “With this partnership, our collaborative vision is to provide a global one-stop shop for the automotive industry, designing the next generation of intelligent, always-connected vehicles.”

Neither company is sharing any information on which car manufacturers they are working with yet, or when the exact launch will be, but its expected chip production will begin in 2026, with hardware ready for 2027 model-year cars. It will be a global solution, and the pair intend to work with manufacturers around the world.

MediaTek may be the world’s No. 1 global supplier of mobile chipsets, but rival Qualcomm has its own Qualcomm Automotive solution, and according to Counterpoint Research, its 5G connected car solution commanded an 80% market share at the end of 2022.

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Andy Boxall
Andy Boxall
Senior Mobile Writer
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
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