This Tuesday (3), Nvidia presented at CES 2023 news that it is bringing to automobiles and Omniverse — its metaverse platform. Among the announced highlights are the arrival of Nvidia GeForce NOW for vehicles, partnership with Foxconn and real-time collaborative creation environment for artists.
There is still no prediction of when GeForce NOW, Nvidia’s cloud game streaming service, will be available in cars. However, the first brands to launch vehicles equipped with the service will be Hyundai, Polestar and BYD. In Omniverse, the manufacturer continues to show a more palpable — and functional — “metaverse”.
Goodbye Peppa Pig in the backseat, hello The Witcher
Cloud game streaming is becoming a gamble for companies. Not for less, as a company popularizes access to thousands of games without the consumer buying a console or computer. The service is successful. And Nvidia has taken this proposal a step further.
Nvidia’s GeForce Now will be available on models from Hyundai, Polestar and BYD, the latter electric car makers. There is still no prediction of when these cars will hit the market. In common, all these brands already use the Nvidia DRIVE platform on some vehicles.
In response to TechnoblogDanny Shapiro, vice president of Nvidia’s automotive division, said that GeForce NOW for cars will be available on existing streaming plans. Owners of vehicles supported by the service will be able to use it for the free plan or, if they are subscribers, for the priority plans.
Shapiro also explained that GeForce NOW’s proposal is to maintain integration between different player devices, as streaming videos do when you stop watching a movie on Smart TV and continue on your cell phone.
And as expected, GeForce NOW in vehicles will require a 5G or 4G connection on the road to perform smoothly — this, of course, thinking about the passengers in the back seat. However, in a situation where you are inside the car waiting for someone, using Wi-Fi will be a very welcome option.
Nvidia revealed that Foxconn will be an ECU supplier (electronic control unit) produced with the Nvidia DRIVE Orion platform, in addition to disclosing that the chipmaker will use the DRIVE Hyperion platform in “electric vehicles manufactured by Foxconn”. Here the ambiguity lets the imagination flow.
In October 2022, Foxconn announced that its prototype Model C will be launched in the second half of 2023. The announcement of the partnership with Nvidia does not specify whether the Nvidia DRIVE Hyperion platform will be used in Foxconn’s car or in one of its customers — the company of Taiwan makes vehicles for Yulon, Lordstown Motors and has a technology partnership with Stellantis.
Omniverse is a metaverse that works
While Meta and other companies imagine the metaverse as a space for people to interact at a distance, whether for leisure or work, something that the public is not buying, Nvidia focuses its metaverse on professional use — and it works.
Nvidia released the case of Mercedes-Benz, which is using the Digital Twin concept in Omniverse to simulate production line layout changes. The adoption of this technology allows the automaker to study changes on the factory floor virtually, without interrupting the manufacture of other lines.
Thus, Mercedes-Benz does not suffer losses when launching a new model. Every car manufacturer, when creating a vehicle, needs to include the production line in the factory, readjusting the entire space configuration. With the use of Digital Twin, manufacturers do not stop the production of other models to study the most efficient layout.
In addition to the German automaker, Hyundai uses the Digital Twin concept in the manufacture of its electric vehicles. However, even though it is a customer of the Nvidia DRIVE platform, the South Korean manufacturer uses Azure (Microsoft) for its Digital Twin work.
In its presentation, Nvidia also showed how its Omniverse can be useful in the development of a vehicle’s interior, with teams working from different places. This parallels the creative “jam session” later in the text.
When talking about the metaverse, the image of a Second Life or pixel beer (as Heineken mocked in a campaign) usually comes to mind. Since nothing beats hanging out with real friends, people turn a blind eye to it. However, these professional uses, as Mercedes does with Nvidia Omniverse and Hyundai with Azure, promise to be a digital revolution.
Nvidia introduces “jam session” for creators
Nvidia has also released updates for Omniverse. Among the platform updates is support for real-time collaborative creation of 3D projects. Nvidia’s vice president of Omniverse, Richard Kerris, called the idea a “creative jam session”.
The novelty allows the integration of files from different software on the Omniverse platform. For example, a professional can produce a file in Unreal Engine and another creates content through Blender. In real time, they can render their productions in the same file. See the example video.
https://tecnoblog.net/noticias/2023/01/03/nvidia-anuncia-geforce-now-para-carros-e-criacao-colaborativa-no-omniverse/