Autonomous technology development boosted by a new consortium

9 October 2019

A group of automotive and technology companies have formed a consortium to collaborate on autonomous vehicle technology.

The new Autonomous Vehicle Computing Consortium (AVCC), officially launched at the Arm TechCon in San Jose, California brings together industry leaders from initial members Arm, Bosch, Continental, Denso, General Motors, Nvidia, NXP Semiconductors and Toyota to serve as the leading organisation for autonomous computing expertise.

Working together

Members will collaborate to help solve some of the most challenging situations that present barriers to the deployment of self-driving vehicles in the mass market. The first step towards achieving this vision, and the common objective of the AVCC, is to develop a set of recommendations for a system architecture and computing platform that reconciles the performance requirements of autonomous systems with the vehicle-specific requirements and limitations in terms of size, temperature range, power consumption and safety.

′The future of mobility and the safe, scalable deployment of advanced driver assistance systems to fully autonomous vehicles for mass production requires unprecedented industry collaboration,’ said Dipti Vachani, senior vice president and general manager, Automotive and IoT Line of Business, Arm.  ′The AVCC brings together leaders from across the automotive industry landscape to tackle complex foundational technological and computing challenges to accelerate our path to a truly autonomous future.’

′The AVCC understands the technological complexities and obstacles that need to be overcome for the deployment of autonomous vehicles,’ said Satoru Taniguchi, AVCC board member and project general manager, Electronics Control System Development Division at Toyota Motor Corporation.  ′Toyota aims to work with the other AVCC members to deliver a conceptual computing platform that addresses these challenges.’

Continuing development

With pressure on the industry to develop autonomous vehicles, the AVCC aims to work together to deliver a conceptual computing platform that addresses these challenges. The group brings together a unique combination of expertise and a shared goal, and its first objective will be to define a reference architecture and platform to meet autonomous performance goals within the practical and economical deployment constraints of a vehicle.

The partners believe that mobility will play a critical role in addressing some of the most pressing challenges society faces globally today – from urbanisation and an ageing population to higher levels of pollution and congestion. However, they recognise that achieving this vision cannot be done individually.

The consortium is also interested in other members joining, believing that increasing the experience between companies taking part will only help to accelerate its goal of a mainstream market for autonomous cars.