DETROIT – Luxury automaker Jaguar Land Rover and Silicon Valley artificial intelligence firm Nvidia said on Wednesday they will work together to develop the computer brains and nervous systems for Jaguars and Land Rovers to be launched in 2025 and beyond.
The companies have not disclosed the financial terms of their multi-year agreement. The partnership is a striking victory for Nvidia Corp.’s efforts to expand its reach in the automotive industry, building on its foundations in gaming, artificial intelligence and powerful chips and software used in servers.
For Jaguar Land Rover Automotive, the partnership with Nvidia provides it with a well-funded ally as it tries to overtake Tesla and other luxury vehicle rivals in a digital technology arms race.
“We can now accelerate our in-vehicle software,” Francois Dossa, JLR’s executive director for strategy, said during a conference call.
In partnership with Nvidia engineers, Jaguar Land Rover plans to develop vehicles that can drive themselves under certain conditions, park autonomously and provide more information and software-driven features to drivers, the companies said. The new Jaguars can be upgraded, as Tesla vehicles are now. The automaker said it will use Nvidia technology to power simulations used to train autonomous vehicles.
Jaguar Land Rover has signed a previous deal with Alphabet Inc’s Waymo unit to deploy autonomous driving technology. Dossa said the Waymo partnership was limited to the Jaguar I-PACE electric SUV. The Nvidia alliance includes all Jaguar and Land Rover models launched from 2025.
Nvidia technology will act as the brain and nervous system of Jaguar Land Rover vehicles from 2025, said Nvidia vice president of automotive, Danny Shapiro.
Nvidia announced deals with several Chinese electric vehicle brands last month. The company has said it has booked $8 billion in auto business over the next six years. Shapiro said the company will update the figure during an investor day scheduled for March 22.
Jaguar Land Rover, a subsidiary of India’s Tata Motors Ltd, is struggling with rising costs and shortages of semiconductors. Jaguar Land Rover reported a small pre-tax profit for the quarter ended December 31, but Tata Motors reported a larger-than-expected quarterly loss.
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