Volvo Group and Nvidia team up to produce an AI platform for autonomous trucks
The work will rely on Nvidia's Drive family of computing solutions.
Nvidia is positioning itself to be a major player in autonomous vehicle development. With a wide range of hardware and software offerings for automakers looking to expand their R&D efforts, the chipmaker has something for just about everyone. Today, it's announcing yet another partnership that will leverage its strengths.
Nvidia announced on Tuesday that it will lend its Nvidia Drive platform to Volvo Trucks for use in the development of self-driving trucks. While other partnerships might focus on passenger vehicles, this one is all about enabling autonomy for other parts of the automotive sector, including logistics, construction, public transportation and even garbage collection.
To better work together, Volvo Trucks and Nvidia will co-host engineering teams in both Silicon Valley and Volvo's home in Gothenburg, Sweden. The teams will rely on the Drive AGX Pegasus platform, which will handle the computing power inside the vehicle, while the Drive AV software stack will be responsible for crunching sensor data and planning paths. The group will also utilize Nvidia's Drive Constellation simulation platform for testing.
"Automation is a key technology area for the Volvo Group," said Lars Stenqvist, Volvo Group's Chief Technology Officer, in a statement. "With this partnership we will further increase our speed of development and strengthen our long-term capabilities and assets within automation, to the benefit of our customers in different segments and markets."
Nvidia is determined to have its systems in as many parts of the AV ecosystem as possible, from development to deployment. It's working with the German certifying body TÜV SÜD on a proposed set of testing measures for automated driving systems, sort of like a driver's license for AVs, which will be done on the Constellation platform. Nvidia's systems will also appear in Daimler's self-driving development vehicles. But heck, if all you're after is a simpler solution closer to modern-day driver-assist systems, what do you know, Nvidia has a solution for that, too.
