Volkswagen, Nvidia to cooperate on artificial intelligence

Frankfurt: German carmaker Volkswagen said on Tuesday it would cooperate with U.S. chipmaker Nvidia on deep learning software that could be used to manage traffic flows or make it easier for humans to work with robots.

"Artificial intelligence is the key to the digital future of the Volkswagen Group," Volkswagen Chief Information Officer Martin Hofmann said in a statement.

"We want to develop and deploy high-performance AI systems ourselves. This is why we are expanding our expert knowledge required. Cooperation with Nvidia will be a major step in this direction," he said.

Nvidia came to prominence in the gaming industry for designing graphics processing chips, but in recent years has been a key player in the automotive sector for providing the so-called "brain" of the autonomous vehicle.

The U.S.-based group separately announced it was also partnering with Volvo Cars and Swedish auto supplier Autoliv to develop self-driving car technology for vehicles due to hit the market by 2021.