Let’s Hit the Road: How Autonomous Vehicles are Making “10 and 2” Driving Obsolete

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In recent years, efforts to produce the first fully autonomous vehicle have really shifted into gear. While self-driving cars once seemed like futuristic inventions straight from a sci-fi classic, today, most standard vehicles are already utilizing some form of technology that classifies them alongside autonomous vehicles. Features like auto-braking and rear-view cameras, also known as advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), mark some of the first steps toward fully autonomous, self-driving vehicles.

Innovation in semiconductor technology is responsible for much of the recent development in the autonomous vehicle industry. And without semiconductors, the ongoing efforts to reach full autonomy would prove fruitless.

But, where is the line drawn between assistance and autonomy? The engineers at SAE International created the industry standard for making such distinctions. Its six-tier system classifies vehicles beginning at level 0, where a car may issue warnings to a driver, through to level 5, at which time there is no intervention needed whatsoever by the driver. Breaking the barrier between assistance and autonomy is the driving force behind innovation in the automotive industry today.

Becoming driver-“less” with more

The automotive industry is primed to conquer levels 4 and 5 of the SAE International scale but still has a few hurdles to clear. Beyond the complications of ethics and legislation, many of the key challenges lie in technology. Surmounting the existing limitations in connectivity, sensing, and judgment will only be possible with the support of faster, denser, more advanced semiconductors.

Engineers need to reevaluate a vehicle’s ability to connect with the world around it. Not only are our streets packed with pedestrian and road signs, but also with multiple machines and other technology enabling the smooth operation of traffic management. Establishing a connection with these other smart elements of the road enables an autonomous vehicle to better model its environment. When channels are established between vehicles (vehicle to vehicle, V2V) and between a vehicle and fixed infrastructure (vehicle-to-infrastructure, V2I) the result is that a vehicle can signal its presence and planned behavior. Additionally, it can share environmental information, like icy roads, among local users as well as process warnings and information distributed via V2I channels including an impending change to a traffic light. While v2i and v2v technology already exist, the burden of reliable connectivity limits its application, especially on rapidly moving vehicles.

Sensing presents yet another challenge in parallel. While connection establishes a link between smart technologies on the road, sensors like LiDAR and RADAR help vehicles to identify and classify the various obstacles and elements in our road systems. A vehicle that has achieved level 5 autonomy must be able to organize and understand its environment in real-time regardless of environmental conditions or other variables like low- or impaired visibility. The development of CMOS as a part of a dynamic system of sensors will be critical to establishing a reliable and steadfast sensing system even more detailed and expansive than human vision itself.

But, what good is all this information if the vehicle can’t make the right decision? Overcoming judgment and decision-making challenges still requires significant development in the world of AI and machine-learning. Our roads are dynamic environments, and their conditions are ever-changing. Therefore, the data collected in these environments mimics the same dynamic and turbulent characteristics.

Autonomous vehicles not only need to make quick work of processing this data, but they also need to be able to utilize and store it as an input to multiple simultaneous computing operations. At the cornerstone of all this data management and processing will be innovative semiconductor memory with increased processing power and storage capacity supporting the configuration and reference of each piece of crucial, potentially life-saving data.

All roads lead to innovation

In support of the overarching goals of the autonomous vehicle industry to create safer, greener roads for all, SK hynix has devoted countless hours and resources to push the envelope in automotive-grade semiconductor technology. Its dedicated automotive teams are conceptualizing and developing the semiconductor and chip technology responsible for increased processing power, data storage, and speed, ensuring the reliable and safe operation of autonomous vehicles for years to come.

In 2020, SK hynix began producing the industry’s fastest high-bandwidth memory chip, HBM2E. DRAM of this caliber supports supercomputing with ultra-fast densities and speeds. This remarkable technology is responsible for enabling the simultaneous computations required of AI for lightning-fast road response. It allows vehicles to assess information from multiple sources to complete operations in parallel as a mimic of the human mind. Just as a brain uses millions of neurons to process driving decisions, autonomous vehicles will rely on advanced DRAM like HBM2E to evaluate and respond to their own on-road experiences.

SK hynix’s HBM products will be capable of processing data even more quickly; such advancements will support the implementation of essential machine learning algorithms, enabling an autonomous vehicle to continually learn and improve its understanding of the road and the results of its own decisions.

SK hynix also offers solutions like eMMC 5.1, an advanced, managed NAND flash memory. Automotive NAND flash technology supports the critical function of information storage. It is essential that fully autonomous vehicles are able to intake information from multiple sources including data from sensors and semiconductors like eMMC 5.1. This technology will be relied upon for storing sensing and map data for the proper operation of advanced algorithms allowing vehicles to identify, classify, and save important details about elements of the road environment.

Bringing driver-less technology to life is about more than just convenience. Filling our roads with autonomous vehicles has various and broad implications including improvements to safety, efficiency, and mobility. SK hynix seeks to use technology to improve the world around us and contributing to the development of the autonomous vehicles is only one of the many ways it does so. It’s SK hynix’s commitment to research, development, and leadership within the industry that is making the future of fully automated vehicles a safe and reliable one.