On the road again? Volvo is teaming up with Nvidia to develop artificial intelligence used in self-driving trucks, the companies announced on Tuesday.
Volvo Group announced Tuesday that it’s using the NVIDIA DRIVE end-to-end autonomous driving platform to train, test and deploy self-driving AI vehicles, targeting public transport, freight transport, refuse and recycling collection, construction, mining, forestry and more.
The two companies are co-locating engineering teams in Gothenburg and Silicon Valley. Together, they will build on the DRIVE AGX Pegasus platform for in-vehicle AI computing and utilize the full DRIVE AV software stack for 360-degree sensor processing, perception, map localization and path planning. They will also test and validate these systems using the NVIDIA DRIVE hardware-in-the-loop simulation platform.
The Volvo Group plans to introduce solutions based on NVIDIA technology across the entire spectrum of automation, from driver support systems to fully autonomous vehicles and machines. By 2040, delivery services will have to travel another 78 billion miles each year to handle goods ordered online, according to consultancy firm KPMG.
Autonomous trucks could potentially operate 24 hours a day, improving delivery times, and with increased efficiency, can bring down the annual cost of logistics in the U.S. by 45% — between $85 billion and $125 billion, according to experts at McKinsey.
Nvidia has previously announced technology partnerships with automakers including Volkswagen, Mercedez-Benz and Toyota. Tesla was also a major customer for Nvidia’s automotive chips, but last year, Chief Executive Elon Musk said the company was developing its own chip.
NVIDIA's DRIVE Platform to Power Volvo's Driverless Trucks