Conti to Use Nvidia Platform for Autonomous-Vehicle Systems

Continental AG says it will use Nvidia Corp.’s Drive platform for the next-generation autonomous vehicle systems it plans to introduce in 2021.

Dedicated engineering teams from each company will work together on Level 2 through Level 5 self-driving technologies. Nvidia will contribute its artificial intelligence-capable computer systems, while Conti will provide a range of sensors and its software and systems engineering expertise.

The partners initially will focus on 360° sensors and technology to control automatic lane changing on highways and merging into traffic. The new systems also will provide high-definition maps backed by real-time updates to pinpoint vehicle location.

Nvidia’s Drive Xavier processor can perform 30 trillion operations per second and consumes just 30 watts of energy, according to the chipmaker. The speed helps enable deep learning capabilities to better sense a vehicle’s surroundings, predict the behavior and position of other objects and plan a path forward.

The collaboration with Continental is the latest partnership for Nvidia, which says it is working with more than 320 companies on the development of self-driving cars. Continental also is working with a variety of partners on such systems. Last summer the supplier joined an alliance led by BMW and Intel to develop autonomous vehicle technologies.