The manufacturer Foxconn y Nvidia announced a partnership to develop automated and autonomous vehicle platforms.
Under the partnership of two parties, Foxconn will become the leading supplier of electronic control units to automobile manufacturers. Those ECUs, which are an essential component for all modern vehicles, will be built with Nvidia's Drive Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC), a supercomputing AI platform that supports autonomous driving functions. As part of the association, Foxconn has agreed to build its own branded EVs with Drive Orin ECUs and Nvidia's suite of sensors such as cameras, radar, lidar and ultrasound. (called Drive Hyperion) which are required for highly automated driving capabilities.
Foxconn did not respond in time to clarify which future vehicles would feature Nvidia's technology; the company has yet to build its own vehicles and is in the process of building electric vehicles for Fisker and Lordstown Motors. The electronics maker best known for making Apple's iPhones recently unveiled two EV concepts: a pickup truck and a hatchback crossover. Details about the vehicles when they were first unveiled were scant, but Foxconn's partnership with Nvidia indicates the cars will be built with self-driving capabilities.
Nvidia said the partnership will allow it to leverage Foxconn's manufacturing capabilities to scale Drive Orin. At the same time, Foxconn's use of the Drive Hyperion architecture and Drive Orin SoC will enable the new automaker to speed up its time to market and reduce production costs.
That will be necessary for any company, including Foxconn, that is new to building vehicles. Although the company has a lot of experience in manufacturing consumer electronicsOne only has to consider the spate of EV startups that have sprung up in recent years.
At CES last year, BYD and Lucid Motors said they rely on Nvidia's suite of autonomous driving tools for current and future advanced driver assistance systems in their cars.
