NVIDIA and Mercedes-Benz partner on automated driving

German automotive manufacturer Mercedes-Benz and technology firm NVIDIA are partnering on in-vehicle AI computing infrastructure.

The collaboration will involve the use of NVIDIA’s DRIVE platform, capable of automated driving from address to address, and represents yet another collaboration of a technology and automotive firm, as we’ve seen with Toyota and pony.ai. 

The companies said that, starting in 2024, the architecture will be rolled out across next-generation Mercedes-Benz vehicles, allowing them to become upgradeable with new features in the future, and the purchasing of additional features in the present.

In a press release, Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, said: “Together, we’re going to revolutionize the car ownership experience, making the vehicle software programmable and continuously upgradeable via over-the-air updates. Every future Mercedes-Benz with the NVIDIA DRIVE system will come with a team of expert AI and software engineers continuously developing, refining and enhancing the car over its lifetime.”

The collaboration represents a counter to the growing dominance of challenger automotive companies such as Tesla, who have been able to create enormous company value on the basis of the technology integrated into their vehicles rather than through the volume produced, at one point becoming the second most valuable car manufacturer in the world.

Tesla blurs the line between automotive and technology companies, with its products having many of the hallmarks of modern technology such as over-the-air software updates, a feature which the collaboration with NVIDIA affords Mercedes-Benz.

Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler and Head of Mercedes-Benz, said: “This new platform will become an efficient, centralized and software-defined system in our future Mercedes-Benz vehicles. NVIDIA’s AI computing architecture will help us streamline our journey towards autonomous driving. These new capabilities and upgrades will be downloaded from the cloud, improving safety, increasing value and extending the joy of ownership for all Mercedes-Benz customers.”