Nvidia's Drive Thor computer is now adopted by BYD, XPeng, and GAC's Hyper

19 March 2024

Today Nvidia proudly announced that its Drive Thor centralized car computer has been adopted by BYD, XPeng, and GAC's Hyper brand, joining Li Auto and Zeekr which have previously announced that they would be using it for future models.

According to Nvidia, Drive Thor is "an in-vehicle computing platform architected for generative AI applications", which can deliver "safe and secure highly automated and autonomous driving, all on a centralized platform". It's the successor to Drive Orin and will integrate the new Nvidia Blackwell architecture, designed for "transformer, LLM, and generative AI workloads".

Xinzhou Wu, vice president of automotive at Nvidia, said:

Accelerated compute has led to transformative breakthroughs, including generative AI, which is redefining autonomy and the global transportation industry at large. Drive Orin continues to be the AI car computer of choice for today’s intelligent fleets, but now we’re seeing mobility leaders looking ahead to bring Nvidia Drive Thor into their next-generation, AI-enabled vehicle roadmaps.

BYD will build its next-generation EVs on Drive Thor and plans to use Nvidia's AI infrastructure for "cloud-based AI development and training technologies". GAC's Hyper will use Thor in models with production beginning in 2025, which will allegedly have level 4 autonomous driving capabilities. The Hyper GT currently uses Nvidia's Drive Orin.

XPeng will use Drive Thor as the "AI brain" of its next-gen EVs. Thor will power XPeng's XNGP "AI-assisted driving system, enabling autonomous driving and parking capabilities" as well as "driver and passenger monitoring".