Nvidia Enhances Collaboration with BYD, Xpeng, and GAC Aion Hyper

During Nvidia's 2024 GTC AI Conference, the company announced that leading Chinese automakers such as BYD, GAC Aion Hyper, and Xpeng have opted for the Drive Thor chip to power their upcoming consumer and commercial fleets. Nvidia first introduced the Drive Thor on September 20, 2022, positioning it as the successor to the Drive Orin chip and targeting automakers' 2025 models.

The Drive Thor chip is primarily tailored for next-generation L4 autonomous driving, driver assistance, passenger monitoring, parking functions, and in-car entertainment. With a performance of 2000 TOPS, the latest Nvidia Drive Thor chip surpasses the current generation Nvidia Drive Orin chip, which operates at 254 TOPS.

The collaboration between BYD and Nvidia began in March of the previous year, initially focusing on developing smart vehicles based on the Nvidia Drive Orin platform. At the 2024 GTC AI conference, this partnership was further strengthened, with all forthcoming electric vehicles by BYD set to feature the Drive Thor chip, enhancing autonomous driving capabilities.

In addition, BYD will integrate Nvidia's Isaac Robot Operating System (ROS) and Omniverse platforms to optimize factory productivity and retail environments, leveraging Nvidia's AI infrastructure for cloud-based AI development and training to improve precision and efficiency.

Nvidia also announced its partnership with GAC Aion Hyper during the 2024 GTC AI Conference. The next-generation L4 autonomous vehicle by Hyper is slated for production in 2025 and will be powered by the Nvidia Drive Thor chip.

Furthermore, Xpeng has confirmed its adoption of the Nvidia Drive Thor platform as the central AI system for its upcoming generation of electric vehicles, while its current vehicles utilize Nvidia Drive Orin chips.