Episode 46 | The World Runs on Arm

Robert Day, Director, Autonomous Vehicles, Arm joined Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss why the world runs on Arm.

The conversation begins with Robert discussing Arm’s partnership approach and how over 190 billion devices around the world contain Arm-based chips.

It’s really all about the partnership approach. It’s all about working with our silicon partners and giving them the right technology to allow them to address the different markets they want to put their silicon into. – Robert Day

Focusing on Arm’s partnership approach, Robert discusses how Arm was able to ship a record 7.3 billion Arm-based chips in Q4 2020 as the global markets faced a supply chain crunch.

Our partners like to work with us because we are continuously innovating. – Robert Day

Shifting the conversation to autonomous vehicles, Grayson asks Robert when and why did Arm first enter the autonomous vehicle industry. Arm has been in the automotive industry for a long time. Building upon this experience, Arm expanded into the autonomous vehicle industry as companies prepare for the mass deployment of autonomous vehicles as they will need great silicon.

As autonomous vehicle companies such as Cruise actively prepare for the commercialization of their service, Grayson asks Robert if custom chip architectures are currently being developed for autonomous vehicles.

Whether people will develop custom silicon to do it, I do not know. As they get closer to deployment, it’s what is available. What is out there? It costs a lot of money to develop a custom chip. If our silicon partners have the right SOCs based on our technology, they will probably just pick those up off the shelves.

There might be certain applications, there might be certain parts of the vehicle that may be doing sensor intelligence where they might want to do some of their own silicon. At the moment you have to get closer to the actual deployment before it will be obvious which way people will go. – Robert Day

Taking a look at the autonomous vehicle industry as a whole, Robert shares his thoughts on the current state of the autonomous vehicle market. The adoption of autonomous vehicles will come down to trust. Grayson and Robert go on to discuss how brands and experiences and help to develop trust with autonomous vehicles.

When developing relationships and engaging with the autonomous vehicle industry, Arm asks the following:

What do you need in order to make autonomy deployable? Mass deployable. – Robert Day

Arm has been having these discussions for years as Arm considers autonomous vehicles a growth market.

It really is an industry and a market that we want to make sure that Arm is front and center in. – Robert Day

As society begins to shift to electric vehicles and the autonomous vehicle industry embraces electrification, Arm is well-positioned as the company specializes in low-power, high-performance chips.

Energy efficiency, thermal efficiency, it will all be really important for deployment. Especially in vehicles that are fit-for-purpose or vehicles that we actually drive as higher levels of autonomy come into them. – Robert Day

With higher levels of autonomy, safety is paramount. Robert discusses Arm’s commitment to functional safety and why it is mission-critical for the safe deployment of autonomous vehicles.

Putting the entire conversation into context, Grayson asks Robert what role he sees Arm playing in the autonomous vehicle ecosystem as the industry matures.

It’s all about deployability and what’s required for autonomous vehicles to be deployed. – Robert Day

Wrapping up the conversation, Robert shares the story of how he first became interested in autonomous vehicles. It all started with an episode of Knight Rider. Grayson expands the conversation into the role popular culture will play in the adoption of this technology and why in the future there will be an Elvis autonomous vehicle service in Las Vegas.

Recorded on Tuesday, May 25, 2021

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