Rick Wilking / Reuters
German automotive components producer Continental has partnered with NVIDIA to produce a full-scale self-driving car platform. It will use the GPU maker’s autonomous vehicle hardware and software setup, DRIVE, to make a unified platform that prospective automakers and others can build their own self-driving cars upon.
NVIDIA will provide the Xavier chips, operating system and software from its DRIVE suite, while Continental will contribute its security certification know-how along with its own radar, LiDar and camera products. Both companies intend for their platform to provide clients with level 2 autonomy (smart cruise control like Tesla’s Autopilot feature) to level 5 (full self-driving capability without steering implements).
Continental is far from NVIDIA’s first autonomous driving partner. Despite losing a deal with Tesla, the company announced agreements throughout 2017 with Audi, Toyota, Volvo, Volkswagen and even Chinese tech giant Baidu to collaborate on different self-driving projects. Continental isn’t a newcomer to the field, either: Last year, they planned a test with Canadian autoparts manufacturer Magna to attempt the first autonomous car trip across the US-Canada border.