Volvo Group, Nvidia collaborate on autonomous commercial vehicles, machines

The duo will be competing with Daimler, Ford, Waymo, Uber and companies developing autonomous semi trucks.

Volvo Group has formed a partnership with Nvidia to develop an autonomous drive system for commercial vehicles and equipment.

The collaboration will center around Nvidia's Drive platform and software stack that handles sensor data, localization, and path planning. The technology will be adapted for a wide range of purposes such as freight logistics, garbage/recycling collection, public transportation, construction, mining, and forestry.

The companies will co-locate teams of engineers in Sweden and California to align their efforts. To be clear, the collaboration involves AB Volvo, the construction equipment and heavy truck maker, not the separate Volvo Cars entity that is now owned by China's Geely.

Many other big companies are pursuing similar autonomous-trucking projects including Daimler, Ford, Waymo, and Uber, among others.

Nvidia points out that freight transport represents a huge opportunity with more than 35 million packages delivered each day across the globe, representing an increase of 28 percent annually. Companies such as Amazon and Target are moving toward an ultimate goal of same-day delivery, which could benefit from autonomous trucks.