Volvo Next-Generation Cars To Use NVIDIA High-Powered Chip

Swedish car manufacturer, Volvo has announced that it would build its next-generation models with NVIDIA’s Drive Orion to power the automobile driving computer. Thanks to a super-powerful chip, future Volvos will be ready for more driverless options.

The new announcement further strengthens the carmakers’ close collaboration with NVIDIA over the past few years.

Volvo has been working with AI-assisted driving features powered by the Driver Xavier since 2018, and now it's upgrading to the new Drive Orin. Cars like Audi, Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and a bunch of other automakers are hopping on this particular train as well.

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The NVIDIA is built to operate a large number of applications simultaneously in autonomous cars. The NVIDIA's Orin is a system-on-a-chip (SoC) that can handle 254 Tera Operations per Second (TOPS), almost eight times the previous Xavier SoC's performance.

The core computer powered by Nvidia Drive Xavier will be compatible with Nvidia Drive Orin technology. The high-performance chip will be equipped with software developed by Zenseact, Volvo’s company that produces Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).

The system also offers a feature called Highway Pilot that will be activated when verified to be safe for individual geographic locations. It is designed for autonomous driving functions, and it features computing-intense work such as vision and LiDAR processing.

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The next-generation Volvo XC90, expected to debut next year, is expected to be the first car model equipped with the new SoC. As a result, the Swedish carmaker's intelligent vehicles will be safer, more personalized, and more sustainable. Volvo plans to become the first global carmaker to use the NVIDIA Drive Orin for its next-generation models, based on the upcoming modular architecture platform, SPA2.

Volvo Cars’ next-generation vehicle architecture will be hardware-ready for autonomous driving from production start.