ZF, Nvidia Announce ZF ProAI for Driverless Cars

ZF Friedrichshafen AG CEO Stefan Sommer, left, and Nvidia General Manager of Automotive Rob Csongor, announce their companies' collaboration on ZF ProAI. Photo by Erin Wade/BU News Service.
Written by Erin Wade

By Erin Wade
BU News Service

LAS VEGAS — ZF Friedrichshafen AG and Nvidia announced at CES Wednesday a collaboration to produce ZF ProAI, an artificial intelligence system for driverless vehicles.

ZF, an automotive parts supplier, and Nvidia, a processor manufacturer, say the technology can be used in driverless vehicles and has wide industrial and commercial applications.

“I think this can be applied everywhere in the industry when we need artificial intelligence. It’s scalable,” CEO of ZF Stefan Sommer said.

Sommer believes the product will be ready for “serious production and application in 2018,” though he expects it will be used “much earlier” for industrial applications.

The ZF ProAI will use Nvidia’s DRIVE PX 2 artificial intelligence technology to process input from ZF’s sensors, including cameras, radar and LIDAR, in driverless vehicles. It will use Nvidia’s Parker processor, a mobile computing chip for autonomous vehicles.

“We’re not going for exclusivity. We just want to make this technology ready for education in our industry,” Sommer said.

At the news conference, ZF also announced X2Safe, an app that communicates between drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to notify them of traffic and potential safety hazards. Sommer said his company is currently looking for partners to help produce X2Safe.

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