Part 1 of a two-part series exploring the chips, computers, and artificial intelligence powering modern vehicles.

A hundred years ago, a truck was almost entirely mechanical. Over the following decades, electronic controls began taking over jobs such as fuel delivery and ignition timing. Today, vehicles contain hundreds—and often thousands—of semiconductor devices, depending on their design and equipment.

Most people already understand the idea from their phones. Your smartphone contains a processor that runs apps, memory chips that store information, chips that handle cellular service and Wi-Fi, and power-management chips that control charging and battery use. Cars need those same broad categories: processors, memory, communication chips, sensor chips, and power chips. A “processor” is only one type of chip; most chips in a vehicle are not processors.

Those chips help control engine timing, transmission shifts, ABS, stability control, airbags, power windows, seats, climate control, infotainment, keyless entry, and much more. A modern car is a network of computers communicating with one another. A power-liftgate control module, for example, contains chips; the module itself is not a microchip. The same distinction applies to other electronic modules throughout the vehicle.

When the semiconductor shortage began hitting automotive production in late 2020, its effects became evident in early 2021. I watched it unfold on the order guides in real time. With General Motors trucks, we started experiencing issues in February, followed by vehicles arriving in March and April with changes rooted in production decisions made weeks earlier. Depending on the model and trim, heated and ventilated seats disappeared, wireless charging pads vanished, and power lumbar adjustments and other conveniences were reduced as the shortage continued. Some vehicles shipped without equipment customers expected, sometimes with a credit or a discount for the missing feature.

Calling it a “microprocessor shortage” would have been too narrow—the disruption affected more than processors alone.

At Southern Ride Customs, we work with the practical side of those electronics through aftermarket retrofits that add factory-style features. A vehicle may have left the assembly line without a power liftgate, but that doesn’t necessarily mean its owner has to live without one.

Depending on the vehicle and the system, we can integrate powered opening and closing with the existing key fob, a dashboard button, and controls at the rear liftgate.

For some owners, that’s a convenience. For someone with back pain, limited mobility, or difficulty reaching and pulling down a heavy liftgate, it can make an everyday task more manageable. Compatibility, proper installation, and safety functions matter. The goal is straightforward: make the vehicle work better for the person who uses it.

That’s another reason this technology matters. Behind the headlines about chips, computers, and AI are everyday improvements that people can actually use—even though a power liftgate itself doesn’t need AI to do its job.

A power liftgate is an example of what automotive electronics can do—not necessarily artificial intelligence. The distinction matters: chips make electronic features possible, but only some vehicle systems use AI.

Other vehicle systems do use AI. Many newer driver-assistance systems use trained neural networks to help interpret camera images, recognize objects, and support functions such as automatic emergency braking and lane assistance. The exact technology varies by vehicle; having adaptive cruise control or lane-keeping assist does not automatically mean every function uses AI.

For systems that do, the distinction is useful: the models are trained using powerful computing infrastructure, while the vehicle’s onboard chips apply that training to incoming information as you drive. Your car generally doesn’t need to send every driving decision to a distant data center.

As we debate data centers and the infrastructure behind AI, that automotive connection deserves a place in the conversation. For many drivers, AI is already part of their life: it can be found in the technology already in their driveway.

This is the quick look under the hood. In Part 2, we’ll take a deeper look at automotive AI and its connection to the data center debate.