# High-Performance In-Vehicle Computing for Autonomous Vehicles Overview ## Driving Next-Generation AV Breakthroughs The future of mobility is driven by AI, and NVIDIA’s in-vehicle compute solutions are central to this transformation. The [NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion™](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/solutions/autonomous-vehicles/drive-hyperion.md) platform features two [NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor™](https://developer.nvidia.com/drive/agx) systems-on-a-chip on a single board, the safety-certified [NVIDIA DriveOS™](https://developer.nvidia.com/drive/os)  operating system, and a fully qualified multimodal sensor suite that includes 14 high-definition cameras, nine radars, one lidar, and 12 ultrasonics. This delivers the compute performance and redundancy required for [L4 autonomous driving](https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/level-4-autonomous-driving-ai/). At its core, NVIDIA DRIVE AGX™ provides the AI computing power for safe, intelligent driving, while [NVIDIA DRIVE AV](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/solutions/autonomous-vehicles/drive-av.md) delivers the end-to-end [autonomous driving](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/glossary/autonomous-vehicles.md) software stack. By integrating the [NVIDIA Alpamayo](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/solutions/autonomous-vehicles/alpamayo.md) family of open-source models, tools, and data for reasoning-based autonomy, the platform helps vehicles solve complex, long-tail scenarios with human-like judgment and transparent decision-making. Together with the [NVIDIA DriveOS](https://developer.nvidia.com/drive/os) safety-certified operating system, this enables real-time processing, security, and system monitoring to meet functional safety requirements. ### NVIDIA Alpamayo This is a complete ecosystem of open VLA models, simulation frameworks, and physical AI datasets, designed to accelerate safe, reasoning-based autonomous vehicle (AV) development. [Learn More](https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/alpamayo-autonomous-vehicle-development) [Watch the Demo (3:44)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EEYgxoT8kc) #### BYD, Geely, Isuzu, and Nissan Adopt NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion for Level 4 Vehicles Leading automakers and mobility providers are building on NVIDIA’s end-to-end platform as NVIDIA advances Level 4 hardware. [Read the Press Release](https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/drive-hyperion-level-4) Features ## Unmatched AI Computing for Autonomous Vehicle Innovation NVIDIA DRIVE AGX delivers a scalable, energy-efficient, future-proof AI computing platform, engineered to process the most complex, real-time workloads essential for safe autonomous driving. ### End-to-End Safety and Security Safety-certified operating system (DriveOS), and hardware design principles comply with stringent automotive safety standards, providing a foundation of trust. NVIDIA Halos provides deployment-time guardrails for run-time monitoring and real-time introspection, ensuring continuous protection and security across the entire AV stack, from the cloud to the car. ### Future-Proof AI-Defined Architecture Runs the latest and most demanding AI models, ensuring your vehicle’s capabilities evolve throughout its entire lifecycle with support for continuous hardware and software upgrades. ### Sensor Fusion Integrates data from the complete suite of sensors—including cameras, radar, lidar, and ultrasonic—to create a robust, 360-degree real-time perception of the environment. ### Optimized Energy Efficiency Features a power-efficient, in-vehicle architecture that delivers maximum AI performance with minimal thermal and energy impact. Hardware ## A Powerful AI Computing Platform Delivering scalable, high-performance hardware for highly automated and fully autonomous driving. ### NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion * Two DRIVE AGX Thor in-vehicle computers based on Blackwell architecture. * Features 14 high-definition cameras, 9 radars, 1 lidar, and 12 ultrasonic sensors and a microphone array. * Includes DRIVE™ AV software, purpose-built for L4 autonomy. [Read the Press Release](https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/drive-hyperion-level-4) ### NVIDIA DRIVE AGX ThorTM * Delivers more than 1,000 INT8 TOPS (2,000 FP4 FLOPs). * Offers a scalable architecture supporting Level 2+ to fully autonomous driving. * Provides superior safety, with ASIL-D compliance and redundancy. [Read the Blog](https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/drive-thor/) ### NVIDIA DRIVE AGX OrinTM * Delivers up to 254 TOPS of AI performance. * Offers a scalable architecture supporting Level 2+ to fully autonomous driving. * Provides superior safety, with ASIL-D compliance and redundancy. [Learn More](https://developer.nvidia.com/drive/agx) Software ## Breakthroughs for Autonomous Vehicles Enabling safe, scalable, and intelligent driving systems. ### NVIDIA Alpamayo * **Open and Transparent AI:** A portfolio of open AI models, simulation frameworks, and AI datasets that teams can inspect and adapt for transparent, reproducible AV development. * **Explainable Long‑Tail Autonomy:** Vision‑language‑action models that reason through complex scenarios and verbalize decisions, making driving behavior interpretable and auditable. * **An Accelerated** [**Path to Level 4:**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYUrtm1W-Mg&t=2s) High‑fidelity, closed‑loop simulation that shifts miles from road to lab, reducing test time and accelerating validation. [Learn More About Alpamayo](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/solutions/autonomous-vehicles/alpamayo.md) ### NVIDIA DriveOS * **ASIL-D Safety Foundation**: A production-proven, certified architecture that provides the base for the most advanced, mission-critical applications. * **Unified AI Acceleration**: Seamlessly powers both high-performance autonomous driving and an immersive cabin AI experience through dedicated acceleration for [LLMs](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/glossary/large-language-models.md) and [VLMs](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/glossary/vision-language-models.md). * **Unparalleled Versatility for Software Deployment**: Cloud-to-car deployment for both QNX and Linux while providing a holistic security framework for the era of Software Defined Vehicles. [Learn More about DriveOS](https://developer.nvidia.com/drive/os) ### NVIDIA DRIVE AV * Features full-stack software that includes active safety, parking, and hands-off and eyes-off driving. * Provides state-of-the-art software architecture using an end-to-end model for self driving that ensures natural driving behavior, even in complex scenarios. * Features the [NVIDIA Halos](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/self-driving-cars/safety.md) safety guardrail system that prioritizes both vehicle and occupant protection, from the cloud to car. [Learn More about DRIVE AV](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/solutions/autonomous-vehicles/drive-av.md) ## NVIDIA Halos: A Full-Stack Comprehensive Safety System for Autonomous Vehicles Over 15,000 engineering years invested in AV safety have led to the NVIDIA Halos system for chip-to-deployment AV safety. It combines hardware, software, tools, models, and proven design principles to safeguard end-to-end AV stacks. [Learn More About Autonomous Vehicle Safety](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/self-driving-cars/safety.md) NVIDIA Automotive NIMs Microservices ## Accelerated Training and Inference for Autonomous Vehicle Development A suite of optimized AI models now available for AV developers. ### bevformer Advanced transformer for multi-frame, bird’s-eye-view 3D perception in autonomous driving. [Build Now](https://build.nvidia.com/nvidia/nvidia-bevformer) ### sparsedrive End-to-end autonomous driving stack integrating perception, prediction, and planning with sparse scene representations for efficiency and safety. [Build Now](https://build.nvidia.com/nvidia/nvidia-sparsedrive-fp16-trt) ### streampetr Efficient 3D object detection for autonomous driving by propagating sparse object queries temporally. [Build Now](https://build.nvidia.com/nvidia/streampetr) [View all NVIDIA Automotive NIMs](https://build.nvidia.com/explore/automotive) DRIVE Customers ## A Shared Vision With Industry Leaders Delivering industry-leading platforms for the world’s top automakers and mobility companies, built on NVIDIA DRIVE AGX. ### Mercedes-Benz NVIDIA is enabling a new era of AI-defined driving, bringing its level 2++ capabilities to U.S. roads this year, starting with Mercedes-Benz, a long-standing partner in advancing safe, intelligent mobility. [Read the Blog](https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/drive-av-software-mercedes-benz-cla.) ### Toyota Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, will build its next-generation vehicles on [NVIDIA DRIVE AGX OrinTM](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/solutions/autonomous-vehicles/in-vehicle-computing.md), running the safety-certified NVIDIA DriveOS operating system. [Read the Press Release](https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/toyota-aurora-continental-nvidia-drive) ### General Motors GM, the largest U.S. automaker, will use NVIDIA AI, Omniverse and DRIVE AGX to develop and build next-gen vehicles, factories, and robots. [Read the Press Release](https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/general-motors-and-nvidia-collaborate-on-ai-for-next-generation-vehicle-experience-and-manufacturing) ### JLR Starting in 2026, JLR vehicles will be built on the [NVIDIA DRIVE](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/self-driving-cars.md) AI-defined platform—from the cloud, built on NVIDIA data center solutions, to the car, powered by [NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/solutions/autonomous-vehicles/in-vehicle-computing.md). [Read the Story](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/self-driving-cars/partners/jlr.md) ### Volvo Cars The Volvo EX90 is built on the [NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/solutions/autonomous-vehicles/in-vehicle-computing.md) system-on-a-chip (SoC), with plans to migrate to the NVIDIA DRIVE Thor computer, running [DriveOS](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/solutions/autonomous-vehicles/in-vehicle-computing/#software) for its future fleet of cars. [Read the Blog](https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/volvo-cars-accelerated-computing-ai/) ### Hyundai Motor Group Hyundai Motor Group will use the NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion platform to accelerate the development of data-driven autonomous driving systems. [Learn More](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/self-driving-cars/partners/hyundai-motor-group.md) [View all NVIDIA Automotive Partners](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/self-driving-cars/partners.md) Resources ## Latest Automotive News 1. Blogs 2. Sessions [View all Blogs](https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/category/auto/) [View all Sessions](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/on-demand/playlist/playList-c2527ab0-5777-44f2-b274-0d0af670c041/) Next Steps ### Ready to Get Started? Discover how NVIDIA DRIVE AGX is revolutionizing autonomous driving and shaping the future of safer, smarter mobility. [Contact Us](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/self-driving-cars/self-driving-cars-contact-us.md) ### Automotive News Sign up for the latest news and updates from NVIDIA. [Stay Informed](#self-driving-cars-news-sign-up-form) ### NVIDIA Automotive NVIDIA’s automotive solutions give you the performance and scalability to design, visualize, develop, and simulate the future of driving. [Explore NVIDIA Automotive](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/industries/automotive.md)