The Nvidia Drive Xavier, available this quarter, is the autonomous machine processor at the heart of this system. The SoC is capable of performing 30 deep learning TOPS (trillions of operations per second), using only 30 watts of power. According to the developer, Xavier also enables rich, diverse I/O connections to many different types of sensors.
Germany-based ZF brings expertise for system integration of the car computer and the sensors. ZF’s new Xavier-based ProAI will process inputs from multiple cameras, plus lidar and radar, paint a 360-degree view around the vehicle, locate it on an HD map, and find a safe path through traffic.
Baidu’s Apollo open autonomous driving platform provides an all-in-one service designed to support all major features and functions of an autonomous vehicle. Apollo Pilot is an autonomous driving product targeted for mass production. It’s built on Baidu’s services and insight from the driving behaviors of Chinese users.
This platform is created not only for Chinese automakers, but for any vehicle maker planning to do business in China, and can scale from super Level 2 automated driving capabilities to Level 5 fully autonomous robotaxis. Production vehicles utilizing AI self-driving technologies from Nvidia, ZF and Baidu are expected to be available on the roads of China starting in 2020.
