At Nvidia’s annual GTC conference in San Jose, Calif. today, the chipmaker introduced it was teaming up with Common Motors to develop next-generation vehicles, robots, and factories.
GM says it can apply a number of of Nvidia’s merchandise to its enterprise, such because the Omniverse 3D graphics platform which can run simulations on digital meeting traces with an eye fixed on decreasing downtime and bettering effectivity. The automaker additionally plans to equip its next-generation automobiles with Nvidia’s “AI mind” for superior driver help and autonomous driving. And it’ll make use of the chipmaker’s AI coaching software program to make its car meeting line robots higher at sure duties, like precision welding and materials dealing with.
GM already makes use of Nvidia’s GPUs to coach its AI software program for simulation and validation. At the moment’s announcement was about increasing these use instances into bettering its manufacturing operations and autonomous automobiles, GM CEO Mary Barra mentioned in a press release. (Barra is becoming a member of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang for a “hearth chat” through the GTC convention immediately.)
Picture: Nvidia
“AI not solely optimizes manufacturing processes and accelerates digital testing but in addition helps us construct smarter automobiles whereas empowering our workforce to concentrate on craftsmanship,” Barra mentioned. “By merging know-how with human ingenuity, we unlock new ranges of innovation in car manufacturing and past.”
GM will undertake Nvidia’s in-car software program merchandise to construct next-gen automobiles with autonomous driving capabilities. That features the corporate’s Drive AGX system-on-a-chip (SoC), just like Tesla’s Full Self-Driving chip or Intel’s Mobileye EyeQ. The SoC runs the “safety-certified” DriveOS working system, constructed on the Blackwell GPU architecture, which is able to delivering 1,000 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of high-performance compute, the corporate says.
Like most automakers, GM has sunk billions of {dollars} within the improvement of totally autonomous automobiles — with combined outcomes. The corporate’s superior driver help function, Tremendous Cruise, is taken into account one of many safest and most capable on the market today. However its work to deploy totally autonomous automobiles has been much less profitable. Final 12 months, GM pulled funding for its Cruise robotaxi firm after various security lapses solid doubt on the operation’s future.
Earlier than it was shuttered, Cruise was exploring creating its personal chips to scale back prices for its mum or dad firm. The robotaxi startup had been utilizing Nvidia’s in-car computer systems to energy its autonomous automobiles, which executives complained were too expensive.
GM hopes to enhance its self-driving fortunes by promoting passenger automobiles with autonomous driving capabilities — although it hasn’t mentioned when or utilizing what know-how.
In a briefing with reporters, Ali Kani, Nvidia’s vice chairman and common supervisor of automotive, described the chipmaking firm’s automotive enterprise as nonetheless in its “infancy,” with the expectation that it’ll solely herald $5 billion this 12 months. (Nvidia reported over $130 billion in income in 2024 for all its divisions.)
Nvidia’s chips are in lower than 1 % of the billions of vehicles on the highway immediately, he added. However the future appears to be like promising. The corporate can be asserting offers with Tier 1 auto provider Magna, which helped construct Sony’s Afeela idea, to make use of Drive AGX within the firm’s next-generation superior driver help software program.
“We consider automotive is a trillion greenback alternative for Nvidia,” Kani mentioned.
GM is the newest automotive firm to strike a cope with Nvidia. The San Jose-based chipmaker has made critical in-roads within the auto business lately, together with partnerships with Jaguar-Land Rover, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Lucid, Toyota, Hyundai, Zoox, and a number of Chinese EV startups.