Volvo Cars uses AI-generated landscapes to enhance vehicle safety

Volvo Cars have integrated advanced AI-generated virtual environments into the development of its safety software, notably the driver assistance systems (ADAS). This innovative approach is set to pave the way for even safer vehicles, leveraging cutting-edge technology and an abundance of incident data collected from its fleet of new cars.

With this latest initiative, Volvo is utilising a computational technique known as Gaussian splatting. This sophisticated method enables the creation of highly realistic 3D scenes and objects derived from actual real-world visuals.

By synthesising incident data, the company can reconstruct and manipulate various traffic scenarios to explore how different outcomes can be achieved and, ultimately, how road incidents can be avoided.

According to Alwin Bakkenes, Head of Global Software Engineering at Volvo Cars: “We already have millions of data points of moments that never happened that we use to develop our software. Thanks to Gaussian splatting we can select one of the rare corner cases and explode it into thousands of new variations of the scenario to train and validate our models against. This has the potential to unlock a scale that we’ve never had before and even to catch edge cases before they happen in the real world.”

This integration of virtual environments with real-world testing is not only a game-changer for Volvo Cars but is also a part of a broader collaboration with Zenseact, an AI and software company co-founded by the automaker.

The project forms a critical piece of a PhD programme in collaboration with leading Swedish universities, aimed at exploring the potential of neural rendering techniques in future safety initiatives. This research is supported by the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP), showcasing Volvo’s commitment to innovation in automotive safety.

The incorporation of advanced technologies enables the synthesis of greater insights, enhancing the prospect of preventing critical road incidents.

A key aspect of this leap forward in safety software is Volvo’s expanded relationship with NVIDIA. The newly developed generation of fully electric vehicles is designed to harness an accelerated computing platform that collects and contextualises data from various sensors with unprecedented accuracy.

An AI supercomputing platform powered by NVIDIA DGX systems is pivotal to this initiative, unlocking insights and driving the development of future safety models. This effort is part of a substantial investment by Volvo and Zenseact aimed at establishing one of the largest data centres in the Nordics, further supporting the evolution of artificial intelligence in automotive safety.

As Volvo Cars continues to redefine vehicle safety through the fusion of real-world data and virtual world simulations, the automotive industry is once again reminded of the vital importance of innovation in saving lives on the roads.