Volvo, Nvidia Ink Deal for Automated Vehicle Processors

Nvidia Corp. has agreed to supply its latest Drive AGX Xavier autonomous vehicle technology to Volvo Car Corp.

Volvo plans to begin offering the system, which includes 360° sensors and driver monitoring technologies, on vehicles built on its upcoming Scalable Production Architecture 2 (SPA 2) platform early next decade.

Nvidia’s system-on-a-chip Xavier processor is capable of 30 trillion operations per second. The supplier says the throughput will enable Level 4 autonomous driving, under which no input from the driver is required, but manual operation is still possible.

Volvo currently offers Level 2 capability in models such as the XC60 midsize crossover vehicle. The car rides on Volvo’s modular SPA architecture, which also carries other 60- and 90 series cars and crossover models. The carmaker doesn’t plan to offer Level 3 autonomous systems because of potential problems of transferring control of the vehicle between a driver and on-board computers.

The new partnership builds on last year’s agreement between Volvo and Nvidia to start joint development of deep learning artificial intelligence software and other advanced technology for self-driving cars. That deal also involves Volvo’s 21-month-old Zenuity joint venture with Autoliv Inc. and Veoneer, which was spun off from Autoliv Inc. earlier this year.