NVIDIA and Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) have announced a strategic partnership to develop automated and autonomous vehicle platforms. As part of the agreement, Foxconn will produce electronic control units (ECUs) based on NVIDIA’s Drive Orin computer platform for the global automotive market. Foxconn-manufactured electric vehicles (EVs) will feature Drive Orin ECUs and Drive Hyperion sensors for “highly automated” driving capabilities, the companies say.

“This strategic cooperation with NVIDIA strengthens the intelligent driving solutions Foxconn will be able to provide. Together, we are enabling the industry to build energy-efficient, automated vehicles,” said Eric Yeh, senior director of the software development center at Foxconn.

The partnership with Foxconn will allow NVIDIA to further scale its efforts and meet growing industry demand as more transportation leaders select Drive Orin for intelligent vehicles, the company says. In addition, by building EVs on the Drive Hyperion qualified sensor set, Foxconn will speed up its time-to-market and time-to-cost strategies.

The automotive-grade NVIDIA Drive Orin system-on-a-chip achieves up to 254 trillion operations per second and is designed to handle the large number of applications and deep neural networks that run simultaneously in autonomous vehicles, NVIDIA says. NVIDIA Drive Hyperion is a modular development platform and reference architecture for designing autonomous vehicles. Combined, the company says they serve as the brain and central nervous system of the vehicle, processing sensor data in real-time so autonomous vehicles can safely perceive, plan and act.