Mercedes-Benz S-Class luxury electric sedan welcomes the most heavyweight ambassador in history, Jensen Huang

The CEO of a technology company valued in the trillions personally endorses and explains cross-industry collaboration technology, which is uncommon in the automotive industry. NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang congratulated Mercedes-Benz on its 140th anniversary with a speech, stating that the Mercedes-Benz S-Class is the first luxury top-tier car he has owned in his life. He personally elaborated on NVIDIA’s collaboration with Mercedes-Benz S-Class autonomous vehicles, making him the most high-profile ambassador in Mercedes-Benz history.

S-Class L4 autonomous driving deployment with NVIDIA DRIVE AV architecture

The new S-Class is positioned by Mercedes-Benz as a flagship model crucial to advancing automation, centered on the L4 autonomous driving architecture supported by NVIDIA DRIVE AV. Jensen Huang pointed out in his presentation that Mercedes-Benz’s 140 years of expertise in automotive craftsmanship and safety engineering provide an ideal foundation for integrating artificial intelligence. NVIDIA has been collaborating with Mercedes-Benz for five years, aiming to extend traditional automotive safety engineering into the AI era. Through their complementary capabilities in deep learning, robotics, and vehicle safety, they are pushing forward the practical implementation of highly automated driving.

Alpamayo AI model with reasoning capabilities to assist humans in complex situations

NVIDIA DRIVE AV employs a comprehensive AI architecture to handle the unpredictable and complex driving scenarios encountered on real roads. Jensen Huang stated that to support L4 autonomous driving, NVIDIA developed the Alpamayo end-to-end AI model, the industry’s first with “thinking ability.” Alpamayo can perform step-by-step reasoning in complex situations to select the safest response. It is trained extensively on the NVIDIA DGX platform and validated through highly realistic simulation environments, ensuring stable operation in mass-produced vehicles with Mercedes-Benz’s existing sensor configurations.

NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion helps create real-world mobility experiences

For L4 autonomous driving, safety depends not only on redundancy. Vehicles must continue to operate safely despite hardware failures, sensor performance degradation, or software anomalies. The new S-Class will be built on NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion, a reference architecture that integrates sensor diversity and hardware redundancy into a single platform.

The DRIVE Hyperion reference architecture combines redundant computing capabilities, multi-modal sensors (cameras, radar, lidar), and diverse software stacks. Even if some computing units or sensors malfunction, the vehicle can still maintain safe operation. Developed following NVIDIA Halos safety system standards, this architecture aims to reduce single-point failure risks and provide a technological foundation for high-end autonomous taxis and chauffeur services capable of long-term operation.

NVIDIA collaborates with Mercedes-Benz to deploy Uber’s global luxury autonomous mobility service

In terms of application, NVIDIA will work with Mercedes-Benz and Uber to promote luxury autonomous mobility services. Jensen Huang stated that the next phase involves connecting the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and NVIDIA’s full-stack Hyperion platform to the global L4 intelligent mobility network, expanding through Uber’s ride-hailing platform. The goal of this tripartite collaboration is to target high-end customers with a luxurious autonomous driving experience.

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