Volvo is leveling up its automated driving system through an expansion of its nearly decade-long partnership with Nvidia. The companies announced on Thursday that Volvo will use three pieces of Nvidia hardware and software in its future vehicles to provide an automated driving system that can navigate urban streets and highways. Under the expanded partnership, Volvo will combine its vehicle safety systems and engineering with Nvidia’s Hyperion sensor and compute architecture, Alpamayo driving software stack, and Halos safety evaluation layer.
The Alpamayo stack is redundant and diverse, according to Ali Kani, who heads up Nvidia’s automotive division. It combines Alpamayo, a family of AI models, datasets, and simulation and development tools used to build autonomous-driving software, with classical software that uses machine learning and camera and radar perception, he said. Volvo didn’t reveal the value of the partnership or which vehicle model would be the first to use this new Nvidia tech stack.
But Alwin Bakkenes, Volvo’s head of software development, hinted at the scale of the deal and how it represents the automaker’s evolution toward developing a full-tech stack designed for its electric vehicles as well as its plug-in hybrids and gas-powered vehicles. All of Volvo’s battery-electric vehicles use Nvidia’s Orin computer chip, which processes information from cameras, radar, and other sensors to help a vehicle understand its surroundings and make driving decisions.
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