From its roots as a provider of graphics processing power for video games, Nvidia has risen to become one of the most important Silicon Valley companies developing technology for self-driving vehicles. This was underscored recently when the company announced further collaborations with two major OEMs?Volvo and Volkswagen?and top global automotive supplier ZF. Together, the announcements signal that automakers are using Nvidia?s technology for a broad range of autonomous systems, some of which are tilting from research-and-development projects into firm production plans.
Chief among them: Volvo will use Nvidia?s Drive PX computing platform, pictured above, to develop advanced software and artificial-intelligence applications for autonomous vehicles. The two companies had already collaborated on the XC90 SUVs used in Volvo?s Drive Me project, and this announcement entrenches their relationship as Volvo plans to launch autonomous vehicles by 2021.
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?On the platform side, Nvidia is clearly dominating

in the development and early-implementation phases

of autonomous vehicles.? ? Mike Ramsey, Gartner

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Speaking at the Automobil Elektronik Kongress in Germany, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang further announced the company will continue developing deep-learning technology with Volkswagen at the automaker?s Silicon Valley laboratory and that it will deepen its partnership with global supplier ZF Group.
The announcements come at a time when competitors such as Inte...