Volvo Cars AB (VLVLY) has announced a significant expansion of its collaboration with Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), aiming to significantly enhance its artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous driving capabilities. This strategic move signifies a key step towards Volvo’s ambition to become a leader in the future of mobility.
The new Volvo EX90, unveiled earlier this year, marks a pivotal moment in this journey. It is the first Volvo model to be fully software-defined, powered by a centralized core compute architecture based on Nvidia’s DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC). This advanced system boasts impressive processing power, capable of performing over 250 trillion operations per second (TOPS).
Looking ahead, Volvo plans to introduce vehicles built on Nvidia’s DRIVE Thor platform, a technological leap forward with a remarkable four-fold performance increase over the DRIVE Orin system, reaching an impressive 1,000 TOPS. This platform will incorporate Nvidia’s Blackwell GPU architecture, promising further enhancements in performance and efficiency.
Jim Rowan, CEO of Volvo Cars, highlighted the significance of this collaboration, stating that the integration of DRIVE Thor will enable the company to scale its in-house developed software more effectively, ultimately leading to improved safety, enhanced customer experiences, reduced costs, and increased profit margins.
Beyond the hardware, Volvo, through its dedicated software company Zenseact, will utilize Nvidia’s DGX systems for training AI models to develop safe and reliable autonomous driving technology. Anders Bell, Chief Engineering and Technology Officer at Volvo Cars, emphasized that the Nvidia DGX AI supercomputer will significantly bolster their AI training capabilities, accelerating the development of advanced autonomous driving systems.
This collaboration builds upon a history of partnership between Volvo and Nvidia. In 2019, the two companies joined forces to develop AI for self-driving trucks, leveraging Nvidia’s expertise in AI to advance autonomous driving technology in heavy-duty vehicles.
Volvo’s commitment to innovation is evident in its recent unveiling of its next-generation electric heavy-duty truck, designed to revolutionize the trucking industry with an impressive range of up to 600 km on a single charge.
This strategic partnership between Volvo Cars and Nvidia signifies a commitment to shaping the future of transportation, driven by cutting-edge AI and autonomous driving technology.
