In a remarkable turn of events, NVIDIA has unveiled its new Blackwell GPU architecture, only to confirm on the same day that their previously announced Drive Thor SoC will also utilize the Blackwell GPU architecture.
As previously reported, the Drive Thor is set to become the inaugural Autonomous Vehicle (AV) platform featuring an inference transformer engine designed to enhance the performance of deep neural networks significantly compared to previous generations. The incorporation of the Blackwell GPU into this next-generation AV platform signals its readiness to handle Large Language Models (LLM) and generative AI workloads.
NVIDIA envisions that the increased in-vehicle processing power will play a crucial role in delivering a more conversational experience with vehicles. While it may not yet match the conversational prowess of Michael Knight’s KITT 2000, it promises to imbue conversations with more context and nuances, moving away from the current robotic-style interactions with driving assistants.
In addition to offering more feature-rich cockpit functionality for drivers and entertainment options for passengers, the Drive Thor aims to provide safe and secure autonomous driving capabilities, all within a centralized platform tailored to the preferences of individual car partners. The advanced processing power onboard, coupled with in-car generative AI processing, enables Drive Thor to decipher complex road signs and provide occupants with informed guidance for their next steps.
First announced in 2022, the Drive Thor SoC combines an Arm-based Grace CPU with a yet-to-be-named GPU, capable of processing up to 2,000 trillion operations per second (TOPS). Positioned as NVIDIA’s next-gen solution for intelligent electric vehicles, Drive Thor is poised to revolutionize the automotive industry.
Leading car partners, including BYD, Hyper, XPENG, Li Auto, and ZEEKR, have pledged their support for rolling out next-gen AI vehicle fleets with Drive Thor. Additionally, commercial deployment vendors such as Nuro, Plus, Waabi, and WeRide, along with Lenovo Vehicle Computing, are developing level 4 autonomous driving solutions leveraging the NVIDIA Thor platform.
Notably, BYD, the world’s leading EV carmaker, not only embraces the NVIDIA Drive platform but also utilizes NVIDIA’s full suite of offerings, including NVIDIA Isaac and Omniverse, to develop tools and applications for various purposes ranging from virtual factory planning to retail car configurators.