Volvo to Use Nvidia Chips in Future Vehicles

Volvo has announced it is extending its agreement to use Nvidia chips in its cars over the coming years.

The news was announced at the launch of the new EX90 electric SUV, hailed as the Swedish automaker’s first software-defined vehicle.

The EX90 is built around the Nvidia Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC), capable of more than 250 trillion operations per second (TOPS).

Running Nvidia Drive Orin OS, the core compute architecture orchestrates all of the EX90’s functionality, ranging from powering the deep learning capabilities that underpin its AI-based active safety and driving assistance features, to supporting the development of autonomous driving capabilities.

Ultimately, the EX90 aims to provide hands-free Level 3 automation, via an over-the-air software update at some point in the future. 

While that would put it on a par with some premium rivals, according to Volvo, the SUV constitutes merely a starting point in showing what is possible in terms of its software-defined car offering.

And to illustrate that point, it revealed that future models over the next decade will be built on the Nvidia Drive Thor SoC, which is capable of 1,000 TOPS – four times as much as Orin – while offering seven times greater energy efficiency.

This will result in an even wider array of tech in Volvo’s next-generation cars, including even more sophisticated safety and diving assistance features, more advanced autonomous driving and generative AI-based in-car experiences.

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The announcement was hailed by Volvo Cars CEO Jim Rowan, who said: “With Nvidia Drive Thor in our future cars, our in-house developed software becomes more scalable across our product line-up, which will help us to continue to improve the safety in our cars, deliver best-in-class customer experiences, reduce our costs, and increase our margins.”

At the same time, it was also confirmed that Volvo and its software subsidiary Zenseact are to set up one of the largest data centers in the Nordic countries to boost the use of AI in developing car safety software. 

As part of this, Zenseact will acquire the latest Nvidia DGX tech –  an AI supercomputing infrastructure optimized for large workloads. The DGX systems will provide the increased computational power necessary to train Zenseact’s AI models more efficiently. 

Hampus Lewis-Lück, chief financial and digital officer at Zenseact, explained: “Nvidia DGX systems will supercharge our AI training, and as a result, we’ll be able to innovate faster.

“By leveraging Nvidia technology and setting up our data center, we gain a quick path to developing high-performing AI, ultimately helping make our product safer. That’s the endgame.” 

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However, while Volvo is gaining real momentum in evolving its software-defined vehicle offerings, it is scaling back its plans to produce exclusively electric cars by 2030.

The EX90 launch was also used to reveal its shift in position, blamed on “changing market conditions and customer demands.”

“Going forward Volvo cars aims for 90 to 100 percent of its global sales volume by 2030 to consist of electrified cars, meaning a mix of both fully electric and plug-in hybrid models,” a statement said. 

The remainder of its offering will be made up by combustion-engined cars with a mild form of hybridization.