FEV and Microsoft are teaming up to bring powerful, in-vehicle Generative AI capabilities to the automotive industry. This collaboration, announced on Thursday, July 9, 2026, aims to integrate NVIDIA GPU-accelerated compute and AI model microservices into vehicles, allowing for multimodal voice, text, and gesture interactions without the need for a permanent internet connection.
The focus of the collaboration is on utilizing small language models (SLM), specifically Microsoft’s Phi-4-mini-instruct in Microsoft Foundry, powered by NVIDIA DRIVE AGX accelerated compute. This will enable drivers to configure vehicle functions, such as the dashboard or individual profiles, through voice commands. Additionally, the system will serve as a local backup for cloud-based large language models (LLMs), ensuring robustness and availability of AI-powered functions.
The use of embedded SLMs will increase the functional intelligence of modern vehicles, improving responsiveness and availability of AI-powered functions. By performing inference directly in the vehicle, central functions will remain accessible even with limited or no internet connection. This also allows for a reduction in backend and infrastructure costs, as cloud-based LLMs can be supplemented or partially replaced depending on the use case, providing economic scalability for software-defined vehicle functions.
Thomas Hülshorst, Group Vice President Intelligent Mobility and Software at FEV, expressed excitement about the collaboration, stating, “Our collaboration with Microsoft and NVIDIA showcases how small, efficient language models can transform in-vehicle experiences, delivering powerful functionality without the overhead of larger systems.”
Boris Scholl, Vice President of Engineering at Microsoft, added, “By combining advanced AI frameworks with domain- and task-specific optimizations, FEV and Microsoft are shaping the future of intelligent, voice-driven interfaces that meet the high standards of automotive deployment.”
The full press release can be found at https://fev.group/689292.
For further information, please contact Marius Strasdat at +49 241 5689-6452 or strasdat@fev.com.
