Nvidia partners with truckmaker AB Volvo for driverless AI
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, left, is pictured with AB Volvo CEO Martin Lundstedt. The truckmaker, which demonstrated its first autonomous vehicle last year, said the partnership with Nvidia would develop a flexible,
scalable self-driving system.
AB Volvo and Volvo Cars are separate entities. Volvo Cars is owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. Geely also is AB Volvo's largest shareholder.
Volvo, which demonstrated its first autonomous truck last year, said the partnership would develop a flexible, scalable self-driving system, which is planned to be used first in pilot programs before commercial deployment.
Potential demand is strong in the United States in particular, where a shortage of truck drivers has been pushing up freight costs.
Pilot project
Nvidia, which has previously announced technology partnerships with automakers including Volkswagen Group, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota Motor Corp., said it was thrilled to team up with Volvo.
"The latest breakthroughs in AI and robotics bring a new level of intelligence and automation to address the transportation challenges we face," said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Volvo said last week its self-driving truck, "Vera," would begin transporting goods from a logistics center to a port terminal in Gothenburg in collaboration with logistics firm DFDS , in a first step toward operations on public roads.
Nvidia's so-called Drive Constellation chips often power the machine learning used to refine self-driving car software algorithms inside data centers, and the company has also been working to build its Drive chips into cars.
Automotive chips accounted for $641 million of Nvidia's $11.7 billion in revenue in its most recent fiscal year.
Tesla was previously a major customer for Nvidia's automotive chips but last year CEO Elon Musk said the electric-car pioneer was developing its own chip.
