Nvidia’s Blackwell AI processor to run driverless trucks
Aurora Innovation Inc. (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) has announced a strategic partnership with automotive suppliers Continental and Nvidia to enable the deployment of driverless trucks at scale by 2027.
Aurora was founded in 2017 with a mission to create Aurora Driver, a platform that integrates hardware, software and data services to enable autonomous vehicle operation. The idea is that Aurora Driver will be an SAE Level 4 autonomous driving system that can be added to conventionally constructed vehicles such as freight trucks and passenger cars.
Continental is scheduled to begin mass production of Aurora Driver in 2027
These two companies have now has agreed that Aurora Driver for trucks will be based on Nvidia’s Drive Thor and DriveOS.
“The combination of Nvidia’s automotive-grade Drive Thor platform with Aurora’s advanced self-driving trucking technology and Continental’s manufacturing and integration expertise is set to help drive the future of autonomous trucking, helping make roads safer while driving up operational efficiency,” said Rishi Dhall, vice president of automotive at Nvidia, in a statement issued by Aurora.
The Aurora Driver is in the process of being validated for use on public roads. It includes multiple sensors – lidar, radar and optical cameras – that merge data within a computer to enable AI processing to make driving decisions. Aurora plans to launch a driverless trucking service in Texas in April 2025.
Nvidia will provide a dual Drive Thor SoC running DriveOS as the primary computer. Drive Thor utilizes Nvidia’s Blackwell GPU architecture. Production samples of Drive Thor are expected in 1H25 enabling Aurora to develop prototype Aurora Driver systems. Continental’s involvement will allow production of Aurora Driver at scale in 2027.
Continental is also developing an independent secondary compute system to provide redundancy and the ability to take over operation if a failure occurs in the primary Aurora Driver computer. Continental is due to test prototypes of its hardware kit in the coming months before integrating with Drive Thor under DriveOS prior to shipment to truck partners for integration.
Aurora Driver installed on a Volvo truck is being exhibited at CES.
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