Jaguar Land Rover Announces Strategic Partnership With NVIDIA to Build ‘Software-Defined' Vehicles Starting in 2025

author: Eric Walz   

The auto industry is in the midst of a major transformation with electrification, autonomous driving and vehicle connectivity features rolling out with new models. As a result of this rapid transformation, automakers are forming partnerships with tech companies that were previously outside of the auto industry for assistance in building these advanced software-powered vehicles to get them on the market quicker.

One of these tech companies is computer hardware gaint NVIDIA. The company's DRIVE family of powerful processors and companion software are the brains behind many AI-powered self-driving vehicles in development around the world, but the platform also supports SAE level-2 and higher advanced driver assist systems (ADAS). 

Nvidia has already formed partnerships with automakers Mercedes-Benz and Volvo and its newest partner is Jaguar Land Rover.

Jaguar Land Rover announced on Wednesday a multi-year strategic partnership with Nvidia to jointly develop and deliver next-generation automated driving systems combined with in-vehicle AI-powered services and experiences.

Beginning in 2025, all new Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles will be built on the NVIDIA DRIVE software-defined vehicle platform, which will support a wide variety of active safety systems, including autonomous driving features, automated parking systems and more.

The full-stack solution being used by Jaguar Land Rover will be based on Nvidia DRIVE Hyperion, which features the company's powerful DRIVE Orin system-on-chip (SoC) and centralized autonomous vehicle (AV) computers, DRIVE AV and DRIVE IX software, which is an open and scalable cockpit software platform.

"Collaboration and knowledge sharing with industry leader NVIDIA is essential to realizing our Reimagine strategy, setting new benchmarks in quality, technology and sustainability," said Thierry Bolloré, Jaguar Land Rover Chief Executive Officer.

"Jaguar Land Rover will become the creator of the world's most desirable luxury vehicles and services for the most discerning customers. Our long-term strategic partnership with NVIDIA will unlock a world of potential for our future vehicles as the business continues its transformation into a truly global, digital powerhouse."

Nvidia has become a leading supplier of hardware for autonomous vehicles due to the robust processing capabilities of its SoCs. 

Nvidia's DRIVE Hyperion is a complete computer architecture and sensor set for self-driving vehicles. It's designed to offer the highest levels of functional safety and cybersecurity. The platform is also designed to be open and modular.

In future Jaguar Land Rover vehicles, Nvidia's DRIVE Orin processor will serve as the AI brain of the car and will run the Jaguar Land Rover Operating System, while DRIVE Hyperion will act as the central nervous system to support secondary features, according to Nvidia.

Inside the cabin, The Nvidia DRIVE platform will deliver AI-powered safety features, including driver and occupant monitoring, as well as advanced visualization of the vehicle's environment.

The NVIDIA DRIVE Orin SoC achieves 254 TOPS (trillion operations per second) of performance.

In addition to building software-defined vehicles, Jaguar Land Rover will leverage Nvidia's in-house developed data center solutions with Nvidia DGX for training AI models and DRIVE Sim software built on Nvidia Omniverse for running real-time physically accurate simulation. 

Nvidia developed a powerful computer simulation environment that provides automakers and software developers with an "artificial universe" to train self-driving vehicles how to operate in the real world. Omniverse provides the safe confines of a simulated environment that's built using real world data. 

Jaguar Land Rover's future software-defined vehicle will get better over time with regular updates throughout the life of the vehicle, which is a model first pioneered by Tesla. These updates may include higher levels of autonomous driving capabilities or other safety and convenience features that can be added to vehicles by downloading them as an OTA update.

"Next-generation cars will transform automotive into one of the largest and most advanced technology industries," said Jensen Huang, Nvidia founder and Chief Executive Officer. "Fleets of software-defined, programmable cars will offer new functionalities and services for the life of the vehicles. We are thrilled to partner with Jaguar Land Rover to reimagine the future of transportation and create the most advanced cars."

In addition to working with Jaguar Land Rover on a vehicle software platform, Nvidia announced a similar partnership with Mercedes-Benz in June 2020. The luxury automaker announced that it's developing an entirely new software-based architecture that supports over-the-air updates for its next generation vehicle fleet.

The Mercedes-Benz software platform powered by Nvidia's hardware and will give owners the ability to add optional software to their vehicles, keeping them always up to date with new features.

Drivers of these future software defined cars will be able to add convenience apps to their vehicles in the same way iPhone and Android users add new apps to their smartphones. Mercedes Benz  plans to offer some of the vehicle software updates as a subscription, including specialized convenience features like automated parking.

The advanced Nvidia-powered software-based vehicle architecture will be introduced beginning with 2024 model year Mercedes-Benz vehicles, eventually rolling out to the entire Mercedes Benz fleet globally. 

Last year, Volvo announced that its new XC90 electric SUV will use the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC) to power the autonomous driving and safety systems. Nvidia's Orin processor is one of the world's most powerful SoCs and delivers the computing power needed for computer vision and lidar sensor data processing that's support autonomous driving.

The Nvidia DRIVE Orin SoC for example, achieves 254 TOPS (trillion operations per second) of performance and includes a comprehensive deep learning accelerator. The Orin SoC can transmit over 200 gigabytes of vehicle data per second using just 60 to 70 Watts of power, according to Danny Shapiro, Nvidia's Senior Director of Automotive.

In addition to automakers, Nvidia's powerful SoCs and DRIVE platform are being used by leading autonomous driving startups.

Last month, Toyota-backed autonomous driving technology developer Pony.ai announced the development of a complete autonomous driving computing unit built on NVIDIA's powerful Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC). It's designed for automotive-grade mass production. This computing unit is powered by the Nvidia DRIVE Orin SoC and will rapidly accelerate the roll-out of Level 4 autonomous driving capabilities for the company's robotaxis in China, according to Pony.ai.

Also last month, autonomous truck developer TuSimple announced its expanding it own partnership with NVIDIA on the design and development of a advanced "autonomous domain controller" (ADC) specifically for TuSimple's Level 4 autonomous trucking applications. TuSimple's ADC will also incorporate the Nvidia DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC).

As cars become "computers on wheels", the new partnership between Jaguar Land Rover and Nvidia is just another example of a global automaker teaming up with an established technology partner to build systems that support autonomous driving, cloud-computing, advanced AI-powered vehicle safety features and more.

Eric Walz

Originally hailing from New Jersey, Eric is a automotive & technology reporter covering the high-tech industry here in Silicon Valley. He has over 15 years of automotive experience and a bachelors degree in computer science. These skills, combined with technical writing and news reporting, allows him to fully understand and identify new and innovative technologies in the auto industry and beyond. He has worked at Uber on self-driving cars and as a technical writer, helping people to understand and work with technology.