Kakao Mobility signs with NVIDIA for a twin-Thor Level 4 computer, starting in Kia's purpose-built vehicles

Kakao Mobility signed a memorandum of understanding with NVIDIA in Seoul on Nov. 9 to build a Level 4 driving system, on the sidelines of NVIDIA's AI Day. Kakao will run its own end-to-end driving model on a computing unit with two DRIVE AGX Thor chips, use NVIDIA's Hyperion reference architecture to connect the car, its sensors and the computer, and use NVIDIA's Halos safety system to develop and validate its software, Seoul Economic Daily reported. The first vehicles are Kia's purpose-built vehicles (PBVs), under a partnership Kakao signed with Kia in July.

Kakao keeps the driving model and gives NVIDIA nearly everything around it. Hyperion and Halos are the same pair NVIDIA has offered Korea's transport ministry for its driverless robotaxi pilot (our report). Seoul Economic Daily reported on Nov. 8 that a Nov. 9 meeting between NVIDIA's Madison Huang and Kakao CEO Ryu Keung-sun had been postponed by NVIDIA; the MOU was signed that day by Kakao's physical AI vice president Kim Jin-gyu and NVIDIA automotive senior director Gaurav Agarwal.

The holdouts are the companies that already built their own sensors and computers. One told the paper it would have to retune its software to run on NVIDIA's platform and had not worked out what it gains. The ministry is aiming for Level 4 robotaxi service from 2028, and with Kakao on board, NVIDIA's reference vehicle is becoming the default in Korea before the government has picked one.