• 2 min read
Cars Are Becoming 1.5 TB Computers on Wheels
Modern cars can require over 100 GB of DRAM and up to 1.5 TB of SSD storage as AI, cameras and OTA updates expand onboard computing.
Image: ITzine
Cars have quietly become one of the most memory-intensive categories of consumer electronics. The industry once struggled mainly with shortages of basic chips; now autopilot systems, infotainment and over-the-air updates are competing for capacity too.
According to TechNews, Tesla’s move from fourth-generation autopilot hardware to version 4+ doubles memory from 32 GB to 64 GB. Nvidia’s Orin, one of the most widely used platforms in automotive electronics, typically comes in 32 GB or 64 GB configurations. Higher-end systems can already require more than 100 GB of DRAM.
Storage requirements are growing just as quickly. A car may need 10 GB for temporary software-update files, while a larger reserve can raise that figure to 50 GB. Add camera data and the images used by driver-assistance systems, and the total reaches 100–300 GB.
That makes a typical 500 GB automotive SSD look more like an entry-level configuration than enough storage for the vehicle’s entire service life. Premium vehicles and electric cars increasingly combine autonomous driving, voice assistants, media services and OTA updates in a single computing platform.
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The projected ceiling is approaching 1.5 TB of SSD storage. Demand is expected to rise alongside AI features and the number of cameras, forcing automakers to compete for the same chips used in data centers, PCs and smartphones.
Ilya Ignatov is a technical journalist and news writer. He graduated from the Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics with a degree in information security and has covered hardware, software and consumer electronics since 2018.
Frontier Editor
Dan is our resident futurist, covering electric mobility, space exploration, and the smart home. He's interested in atoms just as much as bits. Whether it's a new battery chemistry, a reusable rocket, or a protocol that finally makes IoT devices talk to each other, Dan breaks down the engineering that pushes humanity forward.
via ITzine
