Volvo to Use Nvidia Tech for Hands-Free Point-to-Point Driving by 2030

The system will rely on Nvidia's Hyperion platform, which combines high-powered compute silicon with sensors mounted around the vehicle, and Nvidia's Alpamayo software, which uses reasoning models to interpret complex road conditions and decide where to steer, brake or accelerate. According to The Verge, the setup will not include lidar, though Volvo could add the laser sensor in the future. TechCrunch reported that Volvo will also use Nvidia's Halos safety evaluation layer, and that all of Volvo's battery-electric vehicles currently use Nvidia's Orin chip.

Ali Kani, vice president and general manager of Nvidia's automotive team, told The Verge that Volvo's new point-to-point system will resemble both Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) and the Nvidia-powered system Mercedes-Benz recently introduced on the all-new CLA sedan. Kani told TechCrunch that the Alpamayo stack is redundant and diverse: it combines a family of AI models, datasets and simulation and development tools with classical software that uses machine learning and camera and radar perception. He said the two stacks run at the same time, and that open-source Alpamayo software has been downloaded by more than 650,000 developers.

Volvo is contributing its own safety systems. Alwin Bakkenes, described by The Verge as Volvo Cars' head of global software engineering and by TechCrunch as its head of software development, said the automaker will combine its safety engineering with Nvidia's technology, including proprietary driver-understanding systems that analyze driver behavior in more detail than a basic driver-monitoring system. The Verge reported that Volvo's connected safety technology lets its vehicles exchange information about hazards and road conditions ahead, including roadworks, extending the system's awareness beyond what a single vehicle's sensors can detect. "Our brand Volvo is synonymous with safety, and safety is synonymous with trust," Bakkenes said in an interview with The Verge. "People get into our cars not expecting anything bad to happen, but they feel intrinsically that if they're ever in a situation ... we will do our utmost to keep people safe, to protect them from harm."

The expanded partnership is also an attempt by Volvo to move past earlier automated-driving setbacks. According to The Verge, Volvo effectively sidelined its Ride Pilot Level 3 unsupervised autonomous-driving system in the United States after it failed to obtain regulatory approval, and a plan to add lidar sensors to some models fell away after supplier Luminar went bankrupt. Bakkenes told TechCrunch that automakers used to develop vehicles by car line and work with various suppliers, but Volvo has "completely changed and migrated into being a full tech stack company." He said the first vehicle with the new Nvidia tech stack will debut within the decade, in the "not-too-near future," and the technology can then go beyond that.

Volvo plans to make the point-to-point system available across its lineup, from entry-level to high-end vehicles, though it has not said which models will come first, The Verge reported. Bakkenes confirmed to The Verge that the launch will happen "before the end of the decade." Kani pointed to the commercial stakes, saying point-to-point driving may prove more valuable than a system limited to highway assistance, and that Nvidia sees the partnership as a chance to help Volvo develop a business model around ongoing software-based offerings.