NVIDIA Tegra X1 powers NVIDIA Drive CX car infotainment system

Tonight NVIDIA announced the Tegra X1, its latest mobile processor. While the company has yet to unveil any mobile devices that will utilize the technology, they did reveal their plans to bring the chip to automobiles through its new NVIDIA Drive CX “digital cockpit”.

According to NVIDIA’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, the Drive CX is a small computer system for your car that is capable of processing 17 megapixels, equivalent to roughly two 4K screen. This is a big step forward compared to current “state-of-the-art” vehicles that can process around 1 megapixel.

Nvidia’s new computerized car system not only is a virtual cockpit, it also is a full featured infotainment experience that includes media integration, text-to-speech, navigation, voice control and reportedly supports any major OS including Linux, QNX or even Android. From the wording of the announcement, we believe that doesn’t just mean supporting Android Auto, it potentially could run Android Auto technology directly — something that Android M is rumored to be bringing to the table. Of course, that’s just speculation at this point.

We’ll be sure to update this post if and when we learn more about Drive CX and NVIDIA’s plans for the platform. What do you think of NVIDIA’s plans to bring the new Tegra X1 to cars? Let us know what you think in the comments.