Honda Motor Co. announced on May 20, 2025, that it is making significant progress in developing a cutting-edge system-on-chip (SoC) in collaboration with Renesas Electronics for its next-generation Honda 0 Series electric vehicles.
The advanced chip is designed to power Honda's proprietary ASIMO OS, which was first unveiled at CES 2025 in January. This operating system, named after Honda's iconic humanoid robot, will serve as the brain of Honda's software-defined vehicles, managing everything from over-the-air updates to the company's Level 3 automated driving technology.
According to Honda, the new SoC will achieve "one of the industry's top class AI performances of 2,000 TOPS" (Tera Operations Per Second) while maintaining exceptional power efficiency of 20 TOPS/W. This processing power is essential for the centralized electrical/electronic architecture that Honda is implementing in its 0 Series, which consolidates multiple electronic control units into a single core ECU.
The chip utilizes multi-die chiplet technology to combine Renesas' fifth-generation R-Car X5 SoC series with an AI accelerator specifically optimized for Honda's AI software. This architecture enables the high performance needed for advanced functions such as automated driving while keeping power consumption low.
"This development represents a major advancement in automotive AI," said a Honda spokesperson. "With our ASIMO OS and this new SoC, we aim to rapidly expand global application of our Level 3 automated driving and strive to become the world's first automaker to enable eyes-off driving in all driving situations."
The first production models of the Honda 0 Series, including the 0 Saloon and 0 SUV, are scheduled to launch in North America in 2026, with global markets to follow. The next-generation models featuring this advanced SoC are expected to arrive in the late 2020s, further enhancing Honda's position in the competitive electric vehicle market.