Volvo’s next generation of cars will use Nvidia’s self-driving car platform

Volvo has announced that it will use Nvidia’s Drive AGX Xavier computer for its next generation of vehicles. The hardware, which was announced by Nvidia in September, has the power to be able to handle full autonomy within controlled areas (so-called Level 4 autonomy), but it will launch with “Level 2+” capabilities, placing it on a similar level as current Tesla models.

The cars are expected to start production in the early 2020s, and they will use Nvidia’s platform to monitor the vehicle’s environment on all sides as well as to keep an eye on the driver. Nvidia has previously said that its software is capable of tracking a driver’s head and eye movements to know when they may have not noticed something in their environment. The system is even clever enough to read a driver’s lips.

Volvo is the latest in a series of car manufacturers to partner with Nvidia to integrate autonomous driving technologies into their vehicles. Volkswagen announced earlier this year that it would make use of Nvidia’s Drive IX platform, and Uber was using Nvidia’s hardware for its own self-driving car tests (although, as Nvidia pointed out, it wasn’t using its self-driving car platform). Mercedes-Benz’s parent company Daimler is also a customer.