3 Silicon Valley self-driving truck companies to use Nvidia AI platform

Silicon Valley commercial driving companies are about to receive a big push from Nvidia Corp.

The Santa Clara-based AI poster child announced at its flagship artificial intelligence conference, dubbed GTC, that many autonomous vehicle companies have adopted the use of its DRIVE Thor platform. The three identified Bay Area commercial driving companies will use the technology to test sensors, make smart driving decisions for trucking and enhance safety features.

“Accelerated compute has led to transformative breakthroughs, including generative AI,which is redefining autonomy and the global transportation industry at large,” said XinzhouWu, vice president of automotive at NVIDIA, in news release. “DRIVE Orin continues to be the AI carcomputer 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.

”The company describes Drive Thor as “an in-vehicle computing platform architected for generative AI applications.” The next-generation processor will also AV companies to integrate new Nvidia architecture, can be used for autonomous and automated driving and integrate generative AI workloads. As AV companies in the Bay Area advance, AI has become a paramount part of their development — specifically in trucking, which Nvidia has noted as an area of development.

Already, Bay Area companies are working on developing autonomous capabilities for long-haul trucking, like Mountain View-based Waymo.

And as Nvidia looks to support commercial driving companies on a technology level, many of which cater to long-haul trucking, the sector has seen pushback from state legislators. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required AV trucking operations in the state to have a required a trained safety operator.

Originally, the state Assembly and Senate backed a bill to address risk and safety concerns associated with AVs and provide time for legislators to revisit and amend laws “to reflect advancements that address threats to public safety and jobs.” Throughout the bill's life, supporters pointed to various instances when autonomous vehicles malfunctioned. The bill, AB 316 , wouldn’t have banned companies from testing or even deploying self-driving, heavy-duty vehicles on California roads. but would have required a trained safety operator to be present in the event of an emergency.

At the time, many Bay Area AV startups like Waymo, Gatik AI Inc., Cruise LLC, Nuro Inc, signed a joint letter asking Newsom to veto the bill. Startups in the space and special interest groups said the bill would prevent autonomous trucking from increasing the state’s economy by $6.5 billion and generate 2,400 new jobs, according to a 2022 study published by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation.

Though Newsom ultimately sided with AV companies, many local agencies have continued to pushback on the technologies deployment due to various safety concerns.

These are the Bay Area companies adopting the technology and what they do:

Nuro Inc.

Plus Inc.

WeRide Corp.

Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Interim Managing Editor Lynn Stock contributed to this report.