Foxconn and Nvidia join forces to build self-driving vehicles, ECUs based on Nvidia’s DRIVE Orin chip

NVIDIA corp and components manufacturer Foxconn has announced that they will be entering into a partnership to develop self-driving or autonomous vehicle platforms for car manufacturers.

Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn said that it will manufacture electronic control units or ECUs for cars based on Nvidia’s DRIVE Orin chip, which has been made specifically for computing in connected and autonomous vehicles.

The platforms as well as the ECUs will be supplied to automakers from all over the world, provided they are working on developing autonomous vehicles. This collaboration will be filling up a massive gap that automakers have had to deal with, as electric and autonomous car makers have struggled to keep their costs low and ramp up production or even research in a meaningful way.

Nvidia said its technology, which includes chips to process information from sensors in real time, will help Foxconn overcome some of those challenges.

It sees a market opportunity of $300 billion in the automotive sector and reported revenue of $251 million in the third quarter from the segment.

The chipmaker said the tie-up will allow it to scale efforts to meet the growing demand for chips made for autonomous and connected vehicles. Foxconn, which operates a vehicle manufacturing facility in Ohio, said its vehicles will contain ECUs based on DRIVE Orin and Nvidia’s DRIVE Hyperion sensors for autonomous driving.

Taiwan-based Foxconn makes electric vehicles for Lordstown Motors Corp, and also has a contract to make Fisker Inc’s second car, the PEAR model. It also manufactures several Apple products and is expected to make some major components of the Apple car as well, when they finally unveil the Apple Car and start selling it.