Nvidia claims its market share is increasing amid intensifying competition in the self-driving computing platform space. The company noted that it has an order backlog of $11 billion as the Drive Orin platform goes into production.
On the eve of Nvidia’s GTC conference, the tech company announced that more than 25 automotive OEMs have adopted Nvidia’s Drive Orin SoC as the basis for their autonomous driving vision, eeNews reported. The first OEMs plan to begin adopting a software-defined vehicle design approach and leverage NVIDIA’s AI computing platform for the series production of models.
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While most automakers refuse to elaborate on their respective electronic systems, Mercedes-Benz is known to have a strategic alliance with Nvidia; tier-one suppliers such as Continental and ZF also do not deny that they use Nvidia-based technology computers to provide driver assistance systems, at least in high-end products.
At GTC, Chinese EV makers BYD and Lucid Group announced their participation in the Nvidia camp. As one of the world’s best-selling EV brands, BYD will begin rolling out next-generation EVs based on the DRIVE Hyperion software-defined platform in early 2023. These fleets will harness the power of DRIVE Orin for smart driving, parking, and more.
Lucid revealed that its DreamDrive Pro advanced driver assistance system is built on NVIDIA DRIVE. NVIDIA’s centralized computing architecture integrates seamlessly with the ADAS hardware in the Lucid Air sedan delivered today. DreamDrive Pro is designed to enhance performance through over-the-air software updates with future-available hardware already installed on the vehicle.
Other OEMs from the new EV camp include NIO, Xpeng, SAIC, Human Horizons Vinfast, and more. What they have in common is that they all rely on NVIDIA’s electronic central control technology to meet the requirements of different SAE levels. As Nvidia proudly announces, Orin has been selected by 20 of the top 30 global passenger vehicle EV manufacturers.
Jen-Hsun Huang, founder, and CEO of Nvidia said: “The car of the future will be fully programmable, evolving from many embedded controllers to a powerful central computer – enabling AI and AV capabilities through software updates and in the car’s life cycle.
“NVIDIA DRIVE Orin has been a huge success in partnering with businesses to build the future and is the ideal autonomous and AI engine for next-generation electric vehicles, robo-taxi, shuttle buses, and trucks.”
By contrast, BMW recently entered into a strategic partnership with Nvidia’s rival Qualcomm. Their common goal is to equip SAE Level 2 to 3+ vehicles with an AI-based ADAS platform.
BMW noted that the partnership is not exclusive and declined to give details of possible further collaborations with other chipmakers. Nvidia clearly sees Qualcomm as a direct competitor, but “there are always multiple players in the market,” said Danny Shapiro, Nvidia’s vice president of automotive. “The competition is healthy and it keeps us on our toes.”
