Lucid and BYD have chosen NVIDIA Drive for their next-generation of electric vehicles.
After going public last year, Lucid rolled out its Lucid Air sedan powered by its DreamDrive Pro advanced driver-assistance system that features 32 sensors and is designed to grow in capability over time with software delivered to vehicle over the air. The EV maker will now add new DreamDrive Pro features built on NVIDIA Drive Hyperion technology.
“The seamless integration of NVIDIA’s software-defined compute architecture and Drive OS provides a powerful basis for Lucid to further enhance what DreamDrive can do in the future – all of which can be delivered to vehicles over the air,” said Michael Bell, Senior Vice President of Digital, Lucid.
One of the world’s best-selling EV brands, BYD will also roll out next-generation new energy vehicles (NEVs) with automated driving and parking built on Drive Hyperion starting early 2023.
They join NEV startups NIO, Li Auto, XPeng, SAIC’s IM Motors and R Auto Brands, JiDU, Human Horizons, VinFast, WM Motor, and others in developing software-defined fleets on NVIDIA Drive.
Altogether, 20 out of the world’s top 30 passenger EV makers are using NVIDIA Drive Orin as their AI compute platform.
Following a series of design wins, NVIDIA’s automotive pipeline has jumped to more than US$11 billion over the next six years. This covers EV startups, world-renowned automakers Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo Cars, trucking companies such as Plus, TuSimple and Volvo Autonomous Solutions, and robotaxi manufacturers AutoX, DiDi, Pony.ai, and Zoox.
“Future cars will be fully programmable, evolving from many embedded controllers to powerful centralised computers — with AI and AV functionalities delivered through software updates and enhanced over the life of the car. NVIDIA Drive Orin has been enormously successful with companies building this future, and is serving as the ideal AV and AI engine for the new generation of EVs, robotaxis, shuttles and trucks,” said Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA.
Drive Hyperion 9 ups performance
At his GTC keynote, Huang announced the next-generation of the Drive Hyperion architecture, built on the Atlan computer, for vehicles starting to ship in 2026. Drive Hyperion is designed to scale across generations so customers can leverage current investments for future architectures.
The next-generation platform will increase performance for processing sensor data and extend the operating domains of full self-driving. Drive Hyperion 9 will feature 14 cameras, nine radars, three lidars and 20 ultrasonics as part of its sensor suite.
Entelechy Asia 