The Volvo Group has signed an agreement with Nvidia to jointly develop the decision-making system of autonomous commercial vehicles and machines.
Utilizing Nvidia’s end-to-end artificial intelligence platform for training, simulation and in-vehicle computing, the resulting system is designed to safely handle fully autonomous driving on public roads and highways, Volvo says.
The solution will be built on Nvidia’s full software stack for sensor processing, perception, map localization and path planning, enabling a wide range of possible autonomous driving applications, such as freight transport, refuse and recycling collection, public transport, construction, mining, forestry and more, according to the company.
The partnership with Nvidia will focus on the development of a flexible, scalable autonomous driving system, which is planned to be used first in commercial pilots and later in commercial offerings from the Volvo Group, the company says. The agreement signed between the Volvo Group and Nvidia is a long-term partnership spanning several years. Work will begin immediately with personnel from the two companies being co-located in Gothenburg, Sweden and Santa Clara, California.
The strategic partnership covers end-to-end computing fundamental to autonomous vehicles. It includes accelerated computing technology in the datacenter for training deep neural networks; large-scale simulation for hardware-in-the-loop testing and validation of autonomous vehicle systems; and finally deployment of the Nvidia Drive platform in the vehicle running the full software stack for 360-degree sensor processing, mapping and path planning, the company says.
