Texas Instruments (TI)’s presence at CES 2026 is all about helping cars to think more for themselves, as they introduced various new solutions revolving around high-performance SoC, imaging radar transceiver, and more.
With the industry moving towards self-driving vehicles that don’t require any hands on the wheel (and maybe even no wheels), the hardware needs to be highly sophisticated to tackle anything from detection and communication to decision making.
First off, the TDA5 SoC family is doing most of the heavy lifting, with simple solutions starting at 10 TOPS of AI performance going all the way up to 1200, with power efficiency beyond 24 TOPS/W. Thanks to its chiplet-ready design using UCIe technology, automakers can use the same portfolio to create different feature tiers, while still supporting up to Level 3 autonomy.
TI is also integrating its latest C7 neural processing unit, which delivers up to 12 times more AI compute than previous generations at similar power levels, meaning more capable in-vehicle AI without expensive thermal solutions, while Arm Cortex-A720AE cores add more headroom for safety, security, and compute-heavy applications.
The combo works together to reduce complexity and cost by consolidating ADAS, infotainment, and gateway functions onto a single chip, while the safety-first architecture is designed to help meet ASIL-D requirements without extra external components. On the software side, they are partnering with Synopsys on a Virtualizer development kit for TDA5, using digital twin capabilities that could help automakers cut SDV development timelines by up to 12 months.
For the radar, the new AWR2188 is the key breakthrough by hosting 8x transmitters and 8x receivers into a single chip, allowing a simplified yet high-resolution radar design because engineers don’t need to rely on cascading multiple devices. It’s flexible enough to support both satellite and edge architectures, making it easier to scale ADAS features from entry-level cars to premium models.
Performance-wise, TI claims 30% faster processing thanks to improvements in ADC data processing and the radar chirp signal slope engine, which translates into real-world benefits like better detection of lost cargo, clearer distinction between closely positioned vehicles, stronger performance in high-dynamic-range scenarios, and accurate object detection beyond 350 metres.
Then there’s the networking side. With vehicles increasingly moving toward software-defined architectures, Ethernet is becoming the backbone of in-car communication. TI’s DP83TD555J-Q1 10BASE-T1S Ethernet PHY integrates a MAC and supports nanosecond-level time synchronisation, Power over Data Line, and high reliability, making it easier to extend Ethernet all the way to edge nodes in the vehicle while reducing cabling complexity and cost.
Availability
The TDA54 software development kit is available right now, with samples of the first TDA54-Q1 SoC expected for select automotive customers by the end of 2026.
Preproduction units of the AWR2188 radar and DP83TD555J-Q1 Ethernet PHY, along with their evaluation modules, are available upon request.
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