Volvo expands Nvidia partnership for future vehicles

Volvo is expanding its nearly decade-long partnership with Nvidia to bring an automated driving system to future vehicles. The companies announced the expanded agreement on Thursday. Volvo will use three Nvidia hardware and software components to support a system designed to navigate urban streets and highways.

The automaker will combine its safety systems and engineering with Nvidia’s Hyperion sensor and compute architecture, Alpamayo driving software stack, and Halos safety evaluation layer. Nvidia automotive chief Ali Kani described Alpamayo as a redundant and diverse system that combines AI models, datasets, and simulation and development tools with conventional software using machine learning and camera and radar perception. He said the two software stacks run at the same time and that the approach uses multimodal sensors. Kani also said open-source Alpamayo software has been downloaded by more than 650,000 developers.

Volvo did not disclose the partnership’s value or identify the first vehicle to use the technology. Alwin Bakkenes, Volvo’s head of software development, said the partnership will begin with a new vehicle that will debut within the decade. He said the technology could then extend further.

The expanded deal is intended to bring automated driving software to Volvo’s lineup beyond battery-electric vehicles, including plug-in hybrids and gas-powered vehicles. Volvo says all its battery-electric vehicles use Nvidia’s Orin computer chip to process information from cameras, radar, and other sensors. Bakkenes said Volvo plans to standardize more on Hyperion, including its sensor set.