From car to cloud: Volvo Cars expands collaboration with NVIDIA

In Cars, the emphasis we place on technology is not an end in itself. We develop anthropocentric technology that creates value and makes cars safer and life better, without compromises in safety. Our cars, based on highly advanced software, are a vital part of this ambition, providing next generation security, connectivity, data and software, all assembled together in a product. We progress as our road map provides for technology: achieving a balance between internal development and smart collaborations with global technological leaders, so that we can work both speedily and with the latest technology. The new Volvo EX90 is the first Volvo model really determined by its software – based on a central computer architecture, achieved thanks to our long collaboration with NVIDIA. The innovative EX90 mainframe system is supported by the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin platform with microcircuit system technology (system-on-a-chip – SoC), which can perform 250 trillion functions per second (TOPS). This central computer system orchestrates everything in the car: from fueling the deep learning capabilities (deep learning) that support active safety and assist driving systems with artificial intelligence technology (AI), until contributing to the introduction of safe autonomous driving in the future and to providing the top customer experience in the category. In order to fully utilize our car based on advanced software with a central computer architecture, we upgrade our cooperation with NVIDIA to the next level. Later, within the current decade, we will present cars based on NVIDIA DRIVE Thor, capable of up to 1,000 TOPS. This amounts to four times as many functions per second as DRIVE Orin SoC, offering seven times as many energy savings. The incorporation of DRIVE Thor will further contribute to the timeless development of our next generation of motor vehicles. DRIVE Thor, which incorporates the NVIDIA Blackwell GPU architecture, will allow us to implement even more advanced safety and assistance functions, develop autonomous driving and introduce possibilities based on productive artificial intelligence (AI) and new in-car experiences. To further explore the potential of artificial intelligence, Volvo Cars, through its subsidiary software company, Zenseact, also uses NVIDIA DGX systems – a platform of artificial intelligence supercomputer, optimized for large volumes of work – to safely develop autonomous driving. DGX systems for artificial intelligence models training will be used before applying to the future range of our models. Based on the power of the NVIDIA DGX platform – and specifically by using the specially advanced AI infrastructure and its optimized software stack – we can increase the efficiency of learning both current and future artificial intelligence models. Our long-term cooperation with NVIDIA and the use of the tested NVIDIA DRIVE platform allow us to further explore and apply our deep knowledge of safety to large base models for artificial intelligence. These models are used to help our cars perceive the world around them even better, with the aim of further improving safety and comfort, as well as the development of autonomous driving.