Signing a strategic partnership for the market introduction of NCAP safety solutions

NVIDIA announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with ZF and HELLA to promote artificial intelligence technology and the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) safety certification system for the large-scale adoption of autonomous vehicles.

ZF, a global automotive parts supplier, and Hella, a leading Tier 1 supplier in camera recognition software and sensor technology, plan to provide a comprehensive autonomous driving system that integrates a front camera unit, support software functions, and a radar system.

This partnership aims to leverage the NVIDIA DRIVE™ PX AI platform to establish the highest level of NCAP safety ratings for passenger cars, while also addressing commercial vehicles and off-road applications. NVIDIA Drive PX provides both NCAP safety and autonomous driving capabilities on a single platform capable of production-ready driving.

Based on NVIDIA Drive PX, ZF and Hella appear capable of developing not only advanced driver assistance systems that connect both companies' advanced imaging and radar sensor technologies for autonomous driving functions, but also scalable software for the systems.

Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA, stated, “The development of autonomous vehicles is one of the most significant endeavors of our society today, as well as one of the most challenging problems to realize,” adding, “Through our collaboration with ZF and Hella, NVIDIA will introduce NCAP-certified AI autonomous driving solutions to millions of vehicles worldwide.”

Stefan Sommer, CEO of ZF Friedrichshafen AG, said, “We are building a robust industrial ecosystem step by step, and earlier this year, ZF became the first parts supplier in history to adopt NVIDIA’s AI technology for passenger and commercial vehicles in the ZF ProAI system.” He further explained, “A few days ago, ZF signed a non-exclusive partnership with Hella, and now we will join hands with NVIDIA to support the enhancement of driving safety and the development of autonomous driving capabilities.”

Dr. Rolf Breidenbach, CEO of Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., said, “By combining Hella’s expertise in front camera recognition software and radar sensor technology with NVIDIA’s expertise in deep learning hardware and software, we will accelerate the development of technology to widely introduce autonomous driving capabilities into various transportation sectors.”