Volvo Cars, other automakers use newest NVIDIA Drive innovations for autonomous vehicles

MANILA: NVIDIA recently announced that SAIC, Zoox, and Volvo Cars are now part of the growing range of transportation firms that utilize the latest NVIDIA Drive technologies to power the next generation of their artificial intelligence (AI)- based autonomous vehicles.

The design-win pipeline of NVIDIA for NVIDIA Drive currently exceeds more than US$8 billion for the next six years. It represents an expanding lineup of next-generation robotaxis, trucks, cars, and new energy vehicles (NEVs).

NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang explained, “Transportation is becoming a technology industry. Besides having amazing autonomous driving  and AI technologies, vehicles will be programmable platforms to offer software-driven services. The business models of transportation will be reinvented. Our design wins demonstrate how NVIDIA is partnering with one of the world’s largest and most impactful industries to help revolutionize the future of mobility.” 

Volvo Cars also confirmed that it will establish its next-generation models on the NVIDIA Drive Orin, which expands the long-standing partnership of the company.

The next-generation Volvo XC90, the first vehicle that features Drive Orin technology, is also set to be unveiled next year. 

The high-performance, energy-efficient compute of NVIDIA Drive Orin will collaborate with Volvo Cars and Zenseact (the autonomous driving software development company of Volvo Cars), for its in-house developed software and an innovative sensor suite that features steering and braking backup systems as well as lidar. 

Thus, the fleet of intelligent vehicles of Volvo Cars will be more sustainable, personalized, cleaner, as well as continuously upgradable and richly programmable through over-the-air software upgrades meant to improve the next-generation vehicles of the Swedish automaker. 

Currently, Zoox introduced its purpose-built robotaxi for daily urban mobility. The vehicle, which is powered by NVIDIA Drive, is one of the first robotaxis that feature bi-directional capability, ushering in the next generation of intelligent transportation.

Aside from this, an increasing number of EV brands and automotive startups have recently made an announcement regarding plans to establish software-defined vehicles that use NVIDIA Drive Orin to bring steadily improving AI capacities, starting as early as next year. 

The biggest automaker in China, SAIC, is preparing two new EV brands that include innovative AI features.

The R Auto family of next-generation vehicles will include the R-Tech advanced intelligent assistant, which is powered by NVIDIA Drive Orin, to operate prediction, sensor fusion, and perception for automated driving features in real time.

The ultra-premium IM brand, a collaboration with Alibaba, will bring long-range electric vehicles (EVs) that are powered by NVIDIA Drive Orin, which include an SUV and a sedan with automated driving and autonomous parking features. Sedan orders are currently being taken, followed by SUV orders in 2022. 

An international intelligent mobility firm, Faraday Future, utilizes NVIDIA Drive Orin in its leading ultra-luxury FF 91 EV to attain advanced parking and summon features as well as innovative highway autonomous driving capabilities once it will be on sale in 2022. 

The NVIDIA Drive Orin will provide power to the next-generation FF 71 and FF 81 vehicles, which will be rolled out in 2023 and 2024, respectively. 

Meanwhile, VinFast, the top automaker in Vietnam, is beginning mass production of its VF e36, VF e35, and VF e34 intelligent EVs with level 2 to 3 autonomous capabilities. It plans to update these superior EV models from NVIDIA Drive Xavier to NVIDIA Drive Orin. 

Nio, which also revealed its ET7 sedan, will provide innovative automated driving capabilities that feature a supercomputer, called Adam, powered by four NVIDIA Drive Orin SoCs that reach 1,000 TOPS. The ET7 will be shipped in China beginning 2022. 

Li Auto, which is responsible for the development of next-generation EVs through the use of NVIDIA Drive Orin, will also be shipped in 2022. The new EVs of the China automaker are being engineered in partnership with Tier-1 supplier Desay SV and feature innovative autonomous driving features, as well as an extended battery range. 

Xpeng already launched its innovative driving technology on the road with the P7 sedan. 

During the previous month, the automaker was able to finish a record-setting, six-day cross-country autonomous drive with a fleet of P7 vehicles that are powered by NVIDIA Drive Xavier. In 2022, Xpeng intends to update the NVIDIA Drive Orin.

Because the trucking industry is affected by driver shortage in the midst of the increasing demand for e-commerce products, the NVIDIA Drive platform aids in delivering fully autonomous and safe trucks that can run in highways, public roads, and geo-fenced areas. 

Navistar is also collaborating with TuSimple to construct NVIDIA Drive-powered self-driving trucks that are designed from scratch for Level 4 autonomous operation. The intelligent trucks of the US automaker are set for production by 2024. 

FAW, the largest truck producer in China, has a joint venture with Plus to engineer autonomous trucks on the NVIDIA Drive platform. Such trucks will be built later this year and will be updated to Orin next year. 

Volvo Autonomous Solutions, which is part of the Volvo Group, is also utilizing end-to-end the NVIDIA Drive platform for the development of next-generation level 4 trucks and autonomous transport innovations.

For more details on these advancements as well as other GTC announcements, the keynote address of Jensen Huang can be found here for on-demand streaming.

Photos from NVIDIA

Also read: Volvo PH promotes child car seat use through free online manual (LINK BELOW)