Mercedes-Benz, one of the largest manufacturers of premium passenger cars, and NVIDIA, the global leader in accelerated computing, plan to enter into a cooperation to create a revolutionary in-vehicle computing system and AI computing infrastructure.

Starting in 2024, this will be rolled out across the fleet of next-generation Mercedes-Benz vehicles, enabling them with upgradable automated driving functions.

Working together, the companies plan to develop the most sophisticated and advanced computing architecture ever deployed in an automobile.

The new software-defined architecture will be built on the NVIDIA DRIVE platform and will be standard in Mercedes-Benz’s next-generation fleet, enabling state-of-the-art automated driving functionalities.

A primary feature will be the ability to automate driving of regular routes from address to address. In addition, there will be numerous future safety and convenience applications.

Customers will be able to purchase and add capabilities, software applications and subscription services through over-the-air software updates during the life of the car.

A new computing architecture
Automated driving functions in future Mercedes-Benz cars will be powered by the next-generation NVIDIA DRIVE platform. The computer system-on-a-chip, called NVIDIA Orin, is based on the recently announced NVIDIA Ampere supercomputing architecture.

The NVIDIA DRIVE platform includes a full system software stack designed for automated driving AI applications. NVIDIA and Mercedes-Benz will jointly develop the AI and automated vehicle applications that include SAE level 2 and 3, as well as automated parking functions (up to level 4).

The new system’s state-of-the-art capabilities will be harnessed with a total focus on safety. As the technology and regulatory framework develop, it will be possible for every car to be updated over the air to enable new automated driving functions. Convenience as well as other safety features will also be available.

To develop the new models, both companies will be utilising NVIDIA DRIVE Infrastructure solutions to enable data-driven development and deep neural network development to handle the requirements of the regions and operational domains where the cars will be available.