ZF Launches ProAI, Production DRIVE PX 2 Self-Driving System

ZF Launches ProAI, Production DRIVE PX 2 Self-Driving System for Cars, Trucks, Factories

One of the industry’s largest automotive suppliers, ZF, today launched the ZF ProAI self-driving system, based on our NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 AI car computer, for cars, trucks and factories.

Speaking at a packed press event at CES Wednesday morning, ZF’s CEO Stefan Sommer outlined how the company is working with NVIDIA to take automated and autonomous driving systems beyond self-driving cars.

Introducing ZF ProAI

Germany-based ZF is the first tier 1 auto supplier to bring our DRIVE PX 2 AI Computing platform into production. Using the DRIVE PX 2 AutoCruise configuration, with a single Parker SoC, ZF ProAI is designed for companies building self-driving vehicles ranging from cars and trucks, to industrial applications such as forklifts and materials-handling vehicles.

At ZF’s event, Rob Csongor, vice president and general manager of Automotive at NVIDIA, spoke about how NVIDIA is working to bring deep learning, a form of artificial intelligence, to a wide variety of industries. “It’s not an exaggeration when we talk about artificial intelligence as the technology that will spark an industrial revolution,” Csonger said.

He added that, in transportation, AI promises to reduce traffic fatalities and congestion. “These are immense business problems.”

ZF ProAI will be able to process inputs from multiple cameras, plus lidar, radar and ultrasonic sensors, in a process we call sensor fusion. This will enable the vehicle, whether it be a truck, a forklift or a commuter bus, to paint a 360-degree view around it, locate itself on an HD map and find a safe path through traffic.

The DRIVE PX 2-based platform will also enable so-called V2X applications — which enable vehicles to communicate with each other and their surroundings.

ZF ProAI can make an entire fleet more capable by implementing swarm intelligence, which allows vehicles to share information, so they can learn faster than any one vehicle — or driver — can on their own.

To learn more about ZF ProAI and its adoption from NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 AutoCruise, see ZF’s press release.