Volvo will use Nvidia technology to launch a hands-free, point-to-point driving system by the end of the decade, the two companies announced Thursday, expanding a partnership that goes back nearly ten years. The system will be rated Level 2++, meaning it can handle complex urban environments — traffic lights, stop signs and unprotected left turns — without the driver's hands on the wheel, though the driver remains responsible.
The Swedish automaker, owned by China's Geely, did not name the first model to get the system or the value of the deal. Alwin Bakkenes, Volvo's head of global software engineering, said the first vehicle will debut "in the not-too-near future" and "before the end of the decade." The Verge reported that the setup resembles Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised), and Nvidia's Ali Kani likened it to the Nvidia-powered system Mercedes-Benz recently rolled out for the all-new CLA sedan.
Nvidia Hyperion, Alpamayo and Halos: the tech stack
Under the expanded partnership, Volvo will combine its own safety systems with three pieces of Nvidia hardware and software: the Hyperion sensor and compute architecture, the Alpamayo driving software stack, and the Halos safety evaluation layer. Kani, who heads Nvidia's automotive division, said the Alpamayo stack is redundant and diverse — running a family of AI models alongside classical software that uses machine learning and camera and radar perception, at the same time.
"The point is we run these two stacks at the same time, and we have multimodal sensors in our philosophy because it's a safer product that way," Kani told TechCrunch, adding that the open-source Alpamayo software has been downloaded by more than 650,000 developers. The Verge notes the setup will not include lidar, though it could include the laser sensor if Volvo decides to add it in the future.
- Nvidia Hyperion: sensor and compute architecture with high-powered silicon and additional sensors around the vehicle
