Mercedes-Benz and Nvidia are going to build a new software-defined computing architecture for automated vehicles based on the Nvidia DRIVE platform that will be installed across the fleet of next-generation Mercedes-Benz vehicles, starting in 2024.
“It’s really a transformative business model for Nvidia and Mercedes-Benz,” Shapiro Nvidia’s senior director of automotive, said. “The entire fleet, every car from the entry A-classes to the S-classes, will have the highest-performance Nvidia AI supercomputer on board.”
Shapiro said that each of these new Mercedes vehicles will come with the full surround sensor suite installed and then, similar to how Tesla does things today, it will be up to owners to decide if they want to activate features, either when they purchase the car or after the fact with an over-the-air update. “There will be different business models, subscription service possibilities or one-time fees or things like that, depending on the region, that potentially turns the car into a fully upgradable, perpetually upgradable device, and there potentially could be be a Mercedes App Store,” he said.
The features include what Mercedes calls “state-of-the-art automated driving functionalities” that will be able to “automate driving of regular routes from address to address,” but since Mercedes is only promising Level 2 and 3 autonomous driving, the driver may need to take over in some situations during the drive. Mercedes says future automated parking functions that use this system could offer up to Level 4 capabilities, which means the car could go park on its own.
