Nvidia is acquiring autonomous vehicle mapping company DeepMap to bolster the capabilities available of its DRIVE software. DeepMap’s technology utilizes crowdsourced data from vehicle sensors to build high-definition maps that update continuously as the car drives.
Ali Kani, vice president and general manager of Automotive at Nvidia, said DeepMap has “a proven track record and are entrepreneurial, nimble and engineering-focused. DeepMap meets a deep need in the industry, and together we will develop and extend these capabilities.”
Nvidia said it plans to continue working with DeepMap’s partner ecosystem while also investing in new capabilities and services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Nvidia’s autonomous business is relatively small compared to revenue from its data center and gaming divisions, but the company continues to build out its DRIVE platform with new technologies and partnerships. In April, Nvidia unveiled the next generation of its DRIVE platform, called Atlan, and touted it as the first 1000-TOPS automotive processor, offering a 4x performance increase over the previous generation Orin.
Nvidia is targeting automakers’ 2025 models with the new SOC, ensuring it won’t cannabalize sales of Orin, the previous generation of the platform. The Orin platform (254 TOPS) has already been selected by leading automakers for production timelines starting in 2022.
