Ambarella, Inc., an edge AI semiconductor company, and Plus, an AI-based driver assist and autonomous driving (AD) solutions provider, today announced that Plus’s PlusVision™—a high-performance transformer-based AD perception software stack with industry-leading power efficiency—is now available on Ambarella’s CV3-AD AI domain controller family of systems-on-chip (SoCs), which provides industry leading AI performance per watt. This state-of-the-art perception offering will help Tier-1 suppliers and carmakers to accelerate the launch of next-generation vehicles with L2+/L3 autonomy.
PlusVision is the transformer-based, deep neural network AI perception software that combines Plus’s L4 perception capabilities with an extensive and diverse dataset. Plus’s AD stack has accumulated millions of real-world driving miles in the U.S., Europe and Australia. This data collection has made PlusVision smarter, enabling incredibly information-rich output that helps OEMs develop and fine-tune detailed autonomous driving policies. Implementing uniform perception software is key to enabling these data-driven, custom policies across different vehicle models and trim levels.
“We are delighted to collaborate with Ambarella in offering PlusVision’s leading-edge perception capabilities on their CV3-AD SoCs,” said David Liu, CEO and co-founder at Plus. “This combination will provide Tier-1s and OEMs with a flexible, high-performance and power-efficient perception solution, enabling them to create a future-proof platform that can be adapted for their evolving autonomy needs.”
“Our collaboration with Plus offers Tier-1s and OEMs additional cutting-edge transformer-based AI perception software solutions, to help accelerate their next-generation vehicle development,” said Fermi Wang, president and CEO of Ambarella. “This is a pivotal time for the automotive industry, and solutions like this give Tier-1s and OEMs the flexibility to efficiently differentiate their offerings and maximize customer value.”
The PlusVision stack, running on a mid-range CV3-AD655 SoC, is capable of delivering peak performance of 11 cameras being simultaneously processed at 30 frames per second. This solution provides more than 200 meters of front-camera detection range, enabling the long-distance perception that is crucial in high-speed driving conditions.
The CV3-AD SoC family offers industry-leading low power consumption while providing advanced image processing and superior AI performance per watt. The Plus and Ambarella teams collaborated to optimize the transformer-based PlusVision model for the CVflow® AI engine inside the CV3-AD SoCs, which provides an optimal solution for AD systems with high performance, low latency and low power AI processing. Additionally, the CV3-AD family’s efficiency helps increase battery range in new electric vehicles and its optimized processing performance provides OEMs with additional headroom to integrate other software and create differentiated features.