It is a well-known fact that Nvidia is one of the biggest semiconductor players in the realm of self-driving car technology. It is the highest capitalised semiconductor maker on the planet. Now, it has acquired a startup called DeepMap which will enable it further enhance its self-driving car technology. "The acquisition is an endorsement of DeepMap's unique vision, technology and people," said Ali Kani, vice president and general manager of Automotive at Nvidia, in a statement. "DeepMap is expected to extend our mapping products, help us scale worldwide map operations and expand our full self-driving expertise," he explained.
The startup was founded by ex-Google, Apple and Baidu employees
One of the greater challenges to achieving peak autonomous driving is having accurate mapping information. It is essential to have localised maps that is reflective of the latest road conditions literally in real-time. DeepMap's technology will help Nvidia's self-driving stack achieve this with greater accuracy allowing the vehicle to locate itself on the road.
"Joining forces with Nvidia will allow our technology to scale more quickly and benefit more people sooner. We look forward to continuing our journey as part of the Nvidia team," said James Wu, co-founder and CEO of DeepMap, in a statement.
Interestingly, DeepMap was founded by James Wu and Mark Wheeler who both worked at Google, Apple and Baidu, perhaps the three biggest tech majors in the mapping space. All three own their mapping platforms. Now, their startup which has been acquired by Nvidia will deeply interface with the Nvidia Drive platform to scale across autonomous vehicles without using too much data via over the air updates.
The mapping system will be embedded in Nvidia Drive
Nvidia will further invest in DeepMap as a part of this acquisition. Nvidia expects to close the deal by Q3 of 2021. This comes at a time that Nvidia's acquisition of ARM is facing scrutiny by rival chipmakers like Qualcomm which also the ARM instruction set and also regulators in the UK and China. With the amount of scrutiny Nvidia's pathbreaking M&A of ARM is making, it looks unlikely the deal will be closed which could throttle some of its overtures in the autonomous driving space.
ARM is critical for Nvidia as it touted the acquisition to create the ultimate computing platform from the age of AI which is central to things like autonomous driving. For Nvidia, DeepMap is a nice acquisition since it counts biggies like Mercedes, Ford, Honda and SAIC as its customers. This will flow in nicely as Nvidia also counts some of them as its customers who use Nvidia Drive.
