Texas Instruments (TI) is helping push everyday cars closer to a safer, more autonomous future with a new wave of automotive semiconductors unveiled at CES 2026 in Las Vegas. The company’s latest innovations aim to make advanced driver assistance and hands-free driving features more accessible across everything from entry-level vehicles to premium models.
TI’s new TDA5 family of high-performance computing system-on-a-chip (SoC) processors act as the “brain” of next-generation vehicles, combining power-efficient artificial intelligence with built-in safety features. Designed to scale across different vehicle platforms, TDA5 SoCs support advanced sensor fusion and real-time decision-making for driving automation up to SAE Level 3—where drivers can briefly take their hands off the wheel under certain conditions.
TI says the chips deliver massive AI performance while keeping heat and energy use in check, reducing the need for bulky cooling systems. By consolidating functions like driver assistance, infotainment, and vehicle networking into a single chip, automakers can simplify designs and lower costs without sacrificing safety.
“The automotive industry is moving toward a future where driving doesn’t require hands on the wheel,” said Mark Ng, director of automotive systems at TI. “Semiconductors are at the heart of bringing this vision of safer, smarter and more autonomous driving experiences to every vehicle. From detection and communication to decision-making, engineers can use TI’s end-to-end system offering to innovate what’s next in automotive.”
Seeing the road clearly is just as important as computing power, and that’s where TI’s new AWR2188 radar chip comes in. This single-chip, eight-by-eight 4D imaging radar transceiver helps vehicles detect objects more accurately and at longer distances—over 350 meters—even in poor weather. The result: better awareness of surrounding traffic, lost cargo on highways, or closely spaced vehicles.
Rounding out the lineup is TI’s new automotive Ethernet solution. The DP83TD555J-Q1 10BASE-T1S Ethernet Serial Peripheral Interface PHY is designed to move data faster and more reliably throughout the car. As vehicles become increasingly software-defined, this technology helps connect sensors and systems using simpler, lighter wiring.
