GM Taps Nvidia To Boost Its Self-Driving Projects
(Tuesday March 18, 2025 @06:40PM (BeauHD)
from the next-gen-partnerships dept.)
- Reference: 0176764869
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/18/200223/gm-taps-nvidia-to-boost-its-self-driving-projects
- Source link:
General Motors is [1]partnering with Nvidia to enhance its self-driving and manufacturing capabilities by leveraging Nvidia's AI chips, software, and simulation tools. "GM says it will apply several of Nvidia's products to its business, such as the Omniverse 3D graphics platform which will run simulations on virtual assembly lines with an eye on reducing downtime and improving efficiency," reports The Verge. "The automaker also plans to equip its next-generation vehicles with Nvidia's 'AI brain' for advanced driver assistance and autonomous driving. And it will employ the chipmaker's AI training software to make its vehicle assembly line robots better at certain tasks, like precision welding and material handling." From the report:
> GM already uses Nvidia's GPUs to train its AI software for simulation and validation. Today's announcement was about expanding those use cases into improving its manufacturing operations and autonomous vehicles, GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. (Dave Richardson, GM's senior VP of Software and Services Engineering will be joining NVIDIA's Norm Marks for a fireside chat at the conference.) "AI not only optimizes manufacturing processes and accelerates virtual testing but also helps us build smarter vehicles while empowering our workforce to focus on craftsmanship," Barra said. "By merging technology with human ingenuity, we unlock new levels of innovation in vehicle manufacturing and beyond."
>
> GM will adopt Nvidia's in-car software products to build next-gen vehicles with autonomous driving capabilities. That includes the company's Drive AGX system-on-a-chip (SoC), similar to Tesla's Full Self-Driving chip or Intel's Mobileye EyeQ. The SoC runs the "safety-certified" DriveOS operating system, built on the Blackwell GPU architecture, which is capable of delivering 1,000 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of high-performance compute, the company says. [...] In a briefing with reporters, Ali Kani, Nvidia's vice president and general manager of automotive, described the chipmaking company's automotive business as still in its "infancy," with the expectation that it will only bring in $5 billion this year. (Nvidia reported over $130 billion in revenue in 2024 for all its divisions.)
>
> Nvidia's chips are in less than 1 percent of the billions of cars on the road today, he added. But the future looks promising. The company is also announcing deals with Tier 1 auto supplier Magna, which helped build Sony's Afeela concept, to use Drive AGX in the company's next-generation advanced driver assist software. "We believe automotive is a trillion dollar opportunity for Nvidia," Kani said.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/news/631951/gm-nvidia-gtc-deal-cars-robots-factories
> GM already uses Nvidia's GPUs to train its AI software for simulation and validation. Today's announcement was about expanding those use cases into improving its manufacturing operations and autonomous vehicles, GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. (Dave Richardson, GM's senior VP of Software and Services Engineering will be joining NVIDIA's Norm Marks for a fireside chat at the conference.) "AI not only optimizes manufacturing processes and accelerates virtual testing but also helps us build smarter vehicles while empowering our workforce to focus on craftsmanship," Barra said. "By merging technology with human ingenuity, we unlock new levels of innovation in vehicle manufacturing and beyond."
>
> GM will adopt Nvidia's in-car software products to build next-gen vehicles with autonomous driving capabilities. That includes the company's Drive AGX system-on-a-chip (SoC), similar to Tesla's Full Self-Driving chip or Intel's Mobileye EyeQ. The SoC runs the "safety-certified" DriveOS operating system, built on the Blackwell GPU architecture, which is capable of delivering 1,000 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of high-performance compute, the company says. [...] In a briefing with reporters, Ali Kani, Nvidia's vice president and general manager of automotive, described the chipmaking company's automotive business as still in its "infancy," with the expectation that it will only bring in $5 billion this year. (Nvidia reported over $130 billion in revenue in 2024 for all its divisions.)
>
> Nvidia's chips are in less than 1 percent of the billions of cars on the road today, he added. But the future looks promising. The company is also announcing deals with Tier 1 auto supplier Magna, which helped build Sony's Afeela concept, to use Drive AGX in the company's next-generation advanced driver assist software. "We believe automotive is a trillion dollar opportunity for Nvidia," Kani said.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/news/631951/gm-nvidia-gtc-deal-cars-robots-factories
Seriously, GM? (Score:2)
by jrnvk ( 4197967 )
What happened to you? First, you take away CarPlay and partner with Google, now you try to jump in with AI crap siloed to a single company too?
Single point of failure? (Score:3)
Is it a good idea having SoC controlling the whole car? Right now if your ABS module fails it doesnt take out the engine ECU. Will that change in the future? BMW are also going down this route in their neue klasse vehicles coming out In 26 with a single computer controlling everything. Cheaper? Probably. Good idea? Probably not. Systems fail. Theres a reason airliners have multiple redundancy in their computer systems.
Re: (Score:2)
Theres a reason airliners have multiple redundancy in their computer systems.
Yeah, but these are cars. What's the worst that can happen if their computer fails? It's not as if they're around people.
Re: (Score:2)
you will go up in flames when the GPU power cable comes loose or will lose all power when the main line fuse blows.
Re: (Score:2)
Allegedly. It's not like NVidia [1]designed their new fangled 12VHPWR v2 power connector with little redundancy [youtu.be]. Spoiler alert: they did. If 5 of the 6 power cables fail for any reason (like not being properly plugged in), all 600W of power can be drawn by one cable and neither the GPU nor PSU can do anything about that because neither know it's happening. Their first 12VHPWR connector had redundancy in that 3 of the 6 could fail so each wire would draw at max 200W each. Any more cables failing would not power
[1] https://youtu.be/kb5YzMoVQyw?si=ms31HqCGpkCbnqxi&t=630
Re: (Score:2)
It does seem obvious to move to a SoC type architecture, just like the industry is/was moving towards an ethernet style data system and 48V electrical system especially in EVs, there are advantages to this setup and yes, it is cheaper so the industry will do it, assuming it can't be stopped the question is how can such a thing be done safely, what are the obvious redundancy measures we find to be a minimum level for future car compute systems?
I was thinking of something like an ECU UPS, where you have somet