Nvidia, the computer-gaming and artificial intelligence company, is furthering its push into automotive development, manufacturing and in-vehicle gaming. In advance of CES this week, the tech titan announced an array of partnerships with automakers from around the world.
* Mercedes-Benz is using Nvidia's Omniverse platform to create a digital twin of its assembly plant in Rastatt, Germany, allowing the company to plan production changes and test them in a virtual environment before reorganizing the physical plant.
* Foxconn will use Nvidia's technology in developing its own advanced vehicles and to supply automakers with electronic control units based on Nvidia's chips and sensors for highly automated driving.
* Hyundai Motor Group, Polestar and BYD are planning to offer Nvidia's GeForce NOW cloud gaming service in vehicles. No specific models have been identified yet for in-car gaming, but the idea is to help entertain not only rear-seat passengers, but drivers who park to charge an electric vehicle, said Danny Shapiro, Nvidia's vice president for automotive.
The range of the announcements helps show Nvidia's role as an "end-to-end" partner for automakers, he said.
"We're not like a Tier 2 chip supplier — that's not how we operate," Shapiro said in an interview Monday. "We do make chips that Tier 1s integrate into ECUs and that go into cars. But we tend to have direct relationships with the automakers. We do a lot of collaborative engineering and product development with them."
