Toyota to power self-driving cars with NVIDIA's supercomputers, operating system
What's the story
Toyota has announced plans to integrate NVIDIA's Drive AGX Orin supercomputer and the safety-focused DriveOS operating system into its future vehicles.
The announcement was made at CES 2025, emphasizing the company's dedication to enhancing autonomous driving capabilities.
At the event, the Japanese auto giant also revealed that its futuristic $10 billion Woven City project in Japan is almost complete and ready to welcome its first residents.
Tech details
NVIDIA's DRIVE OS and AGX Orin supercomputer: What they offer
DriveOS is NVIDIA's self-driving vehicle platform operating system, which ensures safe, real-time AI processing and integration of advanced driving features.
The Drive AGX Orin supercomputer, a major part of this platform, processes real-time sensor data from vehicles.
It is part of NVIDIA's all-encompassing autonomous driving toolkit that includes DGX for training AI models/software stacks and Omniverse platform for AV software testing/synthetic data generation in simulations.
Partnership history
Toyota's longstanding relationship with NVIDIA
Notably, Toyota has been using NVIDIA's cloud-based computing systems for years.
Back in 2019, the Toyota Research Institute started using NVIDIA's tech to develop and validate its autonomous vehicle tech.
This came after the 2017 announcement of plans to integrate NVIDIA supercomputers into future Toyota vehicles for improved autonomous driving systems.
Strategy insight
NVIDIA's 'cloud-to-car' strategy with Toyota
Speaking at a press briefing, Ali Kani, Vice President of Automotive at NVIDIA, highlighted Toyota as an exemplar of their 'cloud-to-car' strategy.
"We had already partnered with Toyota in the cloud, and now we're excited to extend that partnership and work with them in the car," he said.
The statement underscores the evolving relationship between the two companies as they collaborate on integrating advanced tech into vehicles.
Wider adoption
NVIDIA's technology powers other autonomous vehicle projects
Toyota isn't the only one using NVIDIA's tech for self-driving cars.
At CES 2025, Aurora Innovation and Continental also announced a partnership to deploy driverless trucks at scale using the NVIDIA Drive Thor system-on-a-chip.
This widespread adoption of NVIDIA's platforms shows how the industry is moving toward integrating advanced tech into the automotive industry.