Volkswagen this week announced a strategic partnership with a Silicon Valley tech firm in hopes of bolstering its artificial intelligence capabilities.
The agreement between the German automaker and NVIDIA seeks to expand VW's competence in deep learning — advanced machine learning that reliably identifies patterns in images and sensor data.
Volkswagen's Data Lab in Munich is evaluating the use of deep learning in mobility services, such as optimizing urban traffic flow, as well as its corporate practices, such as cooperation between robots and human workers.
"We want to develop and deploy high-performance AI systems ourselves. This is why we are expanding our expert knowledge required," VW CIO Martin Hofmann said in a statement. "Cooperation with NVIDIA will be a major step in this direction.”
The companies also said that a startup support program at its Data Lab will provide technical and financial support to companies developing machine learning applications for the auto industry. The program's first five participants will be selected this fall.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang addressed an industry conference near Stuttgart this week and highlighted his company's agreements with VW as well as Swedish automaker Volvo and German suppliers ZF and HELLA.
“There’s no industry that’s being revolutionized like this one and our contributions to it are significant,” Huang told the audience.
