Nissan’s presence in Silicon Valley has become a strategic advantage in its pursuit of cutting-edge research in artificial intelligence, robotics, high-performance computing and next-generation mobility solutions. NATC-SV is home to multidisciplinary teams pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in autonomy and in-vehicle intelligence. From perception and sensor fusion to path planning and AI model optimization, the demands on in-vehicle compute platforms have never been higher.

To meet these challenges, Nissan selected Ampere’s Cloud Native Processors to support the development and deployment of its Level 4 autonomous driving stack. Ampere processors deliver the predictable performance, workload isolation and energy efficiency required to support a wide range of compute-intensive and safety-critical applications, both in development environments and real-world test vehicles.

A key driver of efficiency for Nissan was the ability to establish architectural consistency across their development platforms, in-vehicle prototypes and data center-class compute infrastructure. Ampere’s Arm-based processors provided the foundation to streamline this effort, offering scalability across workstations, edge servers and future in-vehicle platforms.

By transitioning their autonomous driving workloads from legacy x86 systems to Ampere-powered platforms, Nissan achieved strong performance across sensor fusion, localization and decision-making pipelines, all while reducing power consumption and increasing predictability.

Located just minutes from Nissan’s Silicon Valley campus, Ampere was uniquely positioned to collaborate closely and responsively. From early evaluation to hardware integration, our proximity enabled rapid iteration and support. Ampere-based servers and edge systems – developed in collaboration with partners like ASRock Rack and Supermicro – were deployed across Nissan’s development and test environments.

These systems, equipped with Ampere processors, NVIDIA GPUs and FPGAs, now serve as the backbone for a growing fleet of autonomous R&D vehicles, enabling real-time AI processing and advanced robotics workloads on the road. In the future, Nissan also aims to leverage ruggedized Ampere-based platforms suitable for vehicle integration.

In parallel, Nissan has outfitted its engineers with System 76 developer workstations built on Ampere processors to accelerate software and algorithm development. The System76 Thelio Astra developer systems mirror the in-vehicle architecture, enabling Nissan to unify its software development lifecycle – from ideation and prototyping to road testing – on a single, consistent platform.

As Nissan continues to expand its investments in autonomy and AI, Ampere remains committed to providing the scalable, efficient compute foundation required for next-generation automotive applications. Our shared vision is clear: the software-defined car is a supercomputer on wheels, and at its core is a modern Arm-based compute architecture purpose-built for the demands of intelligent mobility.

Nissan’s strategy to transition the majority of its autonomous driving and AI development to Arm-based platforms reflects a broader shift in the industry. By consolidating on Arm-based architecture from developer desktops to central vehicle computers, Nissan is streamlining development, improving performance per watt and laying the groundwork for future solutions.

Through its collaborations with automotive companies like Nissan, Ampere is helping bring the vision of scalable, sustainable and intelligent mobility to life – one core, one vehicle and one city at a time.

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