Continental to use NVIDIA chipset for self-driving vehicle systems

NVIDIA CEO Jensen HuangTechnology company Continental and NVIDIA announced a partnership to create Artificial Intelligence (AI) self-driving vehicle systems based on the NVIDIA DRIVE platform.

Market introduction will be in 2021 for Level 3 features.

The partnership enables the development of AI computer systems scaling from automated Level 2 features to full Level 5 self-driving capabilities, where the vehicle has no steering wheel or pedals.

Engineering teams from Continental and NVIDIA will work together to develop self-driving solutions based on the NVIDIA DRIVE platform, which includes NVIDIA DRIVE Xavier chipset as well as NVIDIA DRIVE OS and DRIVE AV software stacks.

The solutions will utilize Continental’s experience in system and software engineering for ASIL D rated safety and integrate a range of Continental sensors technologies including radar, camera and high-resolution 3D LiDAR.

“We now have all the key elements in place to take AI self-driving cars from development to mass production,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA.

NVIDIA DRIVE Xavier can deliver 30 TOPS (trillion operations per second) for deep learning, while consuming only 30 watts of energy. The chipset handles data processing such as running deep neural nets to sense surroundings, understanding the environment, localizing the vehicle on an HD map, predicting the behavior and position of other objects, as well as computing vehicle dynamics and a safe path forward.

Continental and NVIDIA will initially develop highly automated driving features, including 360-degree perception and automatic lane changing on highways, plus the ability to merge in traffic. In addition, the system will integrate HD maps enabling the vehicle to localize themselves and provide mapping updates.

In 2016, Continental’s sales of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) exceeded €1.2 billion. The company expects ADAS sales to grow to €2.5 billion by 2020.

“Partnering with NVIDIA will enable Continental to advance beyond its position in advanced driver assistance systems, delivering a scalable range of automated and autonomous vehicle systems, from today’s NCAP requirements up to Level 5,” said Luca De Ambroggi, research and analyst director at IHS Markit.

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