The NVIDIA DRIVE ecosystem is pulling further ahead of the pack with intelligent, software-defined vehicles powered by the high-performance, scalable compute solutions announced today at NVIDIA GTC.
Premium electric-mobility brand ZEEKR will be the first customer for the next-generation NVIDIA DRIVE Thor centralized AI computer, with production starting in 2025. Momentum also continues for the current-generation DRIVE Orin, as electric vehicle maker Xpeng and autonomous vehicle company QCraft announced new models built on the platform.
The NVIDIA DRIVE in-vehicle AI compute platform is scalable, so companies can seamlessly use current software development on future vehicle generations.
The DRIVE platform is architected for safety. NVIDIA has invested over 15,000 engineering years in safety systems and processes. Five million lines of code have been safety assessed, and the company’s platforms are designed for ASIL D and ISO 26262 compliance.
The industry is validating these high-performance, automotive-grade technologies, with plans to build software-defined vehicles on both current- and future-generation platforms.
Turbocharged EV Development
Founded last year, ZEEKR is hitting the ground sprinting.
The premium EV brand is part of Geely Auto Group, one of the leading automakers in China. In 2021 alone, the Geely sold nearly 1.5 million vehicles.
ZEEKR’s first model, the 001, began production last year, and the automaker aims to sell 650,000 intelligent vehicles by 2025 to meet accelerating demand for EVs. The brand is designing vehicles that provide customers an immersive, AI-enabled experience — with innovation as standard.
ZEEKR has selected the centralized DRIVE Thor platform to power automated-driving functions, as well as infotainment and cluster. Thor delivers up to 2,000 teraflops of AI performance and cutting-edge AI features, unifying these intelligent functions on a single platform.
These features include highly automated driving capabilities, parking, digital instrument cluster and infotainment. The unified architecture is expected to achieve even greater efficiency and lower overall system cost.
ZEEKR has already selected DRIVE Orin for its in-house advanced driver-assistance development. With the forward-compatible DRIVE platform, ZEEKR can seamlessly leverage its current development investments on DRIVE Orin to DRIVE Thor for its long-term production roadmap and beyond.
Pulling Ahead With AI Performance
As NVIDIA puts the pedal to the metal on AI compute performance, the industry continues to innovate on the current-generation DRIVE Orin platform.
Earlier this week, Xpeng took the wraps off its G9 electric SUV, built on DRIVE Orin to deliver an enhanced driving experience.
The G9 features dual DRIVE Orin configurations, delivering 508 trillion operations per second of performance for address-to-address automated driving. It also supports intelligent functions such as autonomous parking and can safely handle side streets, toll booths and more.
Autonomous-solutions provider QCraft also announced this week that its latest-generation self-driving platform built on DRIVE Orin will begin public operations this month in a robotaxi fleet in China.
The NVIDIA DRIVE ecosystem revs onward with the scalable, high-performance AI compute platform, enabling automakers to develop vehicles and technology miles ahead of their time.
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