Nvidia GPUs Power 2010 Audi In-Dash Navigation and Entertainment System

By Dena Cassella January 7, 2010

Nvidia and Audi announced today that Nvidia GPUs power the navigation and entertainment systems in all of Audi 2010 vehicles. This great step for the auto industry—embedding cutting-edge GPUs and visual graphic capabilities—will further advance in-car driver assistance, entertainment and safety systems. NVIDIA worked with Audi to develop an elaborate multimedia engine called Vibrante that serves as the media backbone of 3G MMI. The Vibrante navigation and entertainment system in the new Audi 2010 product line uses Nvidia GPUs to generate all visual imagery on the display. The companies say the built-in navigation system features 3D topography of buildings and cities, real-time traffic reporting, iPod, SD card, USB memory stick support and audible navigation given as route-guidance prompts and turn arrows via the color driver information system.

“Visual computing has become key differentiator among luxury cars, whether it’s delivering the necessary information to the driver or offering state-of-the-art entertainment options to the passengers,” said Johan de Nysschen, president, Audi of America. “We partnered with NVIDIA because it is clearly the leader in this field.”

NVIDIA and Audi says they also worked with Google to enable Google Earth on next year’s 3G MMI systems powered by NVIDIA GPUs, beginning in the flagship Audi A8 in 2011.

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