Volvo Taps Nvidia To Bring ‘Eyes-Off And Mind-Off’ Driving To Its Cars

The automaker said its future models will be capable of doing point-to-point, hands-free automated driving.

Photo by: Volvo

By: Iulian Dnistran

Oct 16, at 4:27am ET

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Volvo will use Nvidia tech to bring Tesla FSD-like automated driving to its future cars.
The Swedish automaker will integrate Nvidia’s Hyperion platform to enable hands-free, point-to-point driving by 2030.
Eventually, the system will offer “eyes-off, mind-off driving.”

Volvo is giving its aging driver assistance system a makeover with Nvidia’s help. The Chinese-owned, Swedish-based automaker will integrate hands-free, point-to-point automated urban driving into its latest-generation models, which are expected to debut by the end of 2030.

The system is expected to function similarly to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) and Rivian’s Universal Hands-Free features. It uses cameras and various sensors to detect road markings and other vehicles, but doesn’t rely on pre-mapped areas to make decisions.

Nvidia Founder And CEO Jensen Huang (left), Volvo Cars CEO Håkan Samuelsson (right)

Photo by: Volvo

Further in the future, Volvo claims its AI-powered driver assistance system will deliver “eyes-off and mind-off” driving, but a timeline for the rollout has not yet been disclosed. The cars that will get dibs on the feature are also unknown.

By using Nvidia’s Hyperion platform, which includes custom high-powered chips and a full suite of sensors mounted around the vehicle, Volvo says its new point-to-point system will offer Level 2++ functionality.

Despite its confusing name, which is nowhere to be found on the Society of Automotive Engineers’ Levels of Driving Automation chart, the automaker claims the driver assistance system will be able to handle complex urban environments without explicit driver intervention. This includes stop signs, traffic lights, and unprotected left turns, according to Ali Kani, VP and general manager of the automotive team at Nvidia, quoted by The Verge.

Besides relying on Nvidia’s hardware suite, Volvo will also adopt the chipmaker’s Alpamayo software stack, which uses “reasoning” models to interpret complex road conditions and decide where to brake, accelerate, or steer. The initial setup does not include lidar, but the driver assistance platform can accommodate it if the automaker decides to add it.

“Reasoning-based driving improves safety because the vehicle can work through rare situations it was never explicitly trained on, and the reasoning trace makes each decision transparent and auditable for safety validation,” said Nvidia on its website.

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Volvo’s current driver assistance system, Pilot Assist, only works on roads with clear markings and bundles adaptive cruise control, steering assistance, lane change assistance, and curve speed assistance.

By integrating a new system that can actively adapt to road conditions while offering true hands-free driving, Volvo is putting its safety reputation on the line. Get it right, and it’s sure to attract more customers—something that Volvo needs badly right now. Get it wrong, though, and the Swedish company’s image as a trustworthy brand has to suffer yet again.