NVIDIA has integrated Apollo high-performance lidar into its DRIVE platform for autonomous vehicles, according to an announcement from the two companies. The integration is intended to give automakers and autonomous vehicle developers an additional sensor option for real-time perception and collision avoidance, officials said.
No pricing, ship date, or vehicle deployment details were included in the initial statement. The addition expands the range of sensor suppliers able to connect to NVIDIA's DRIVE hardware and software stack, according to company statements.
NVIDIA DRIVE and Apollo Lidar
The DRIVE platform is NVIDIA's computing system for automated driving. It includes system-on-chip hardware, AI software, and sensor-processing tools, according to NVIDIA. DRIVE Hyperion is a production-ready autonomous vehicle computing architecture, and DRIVE AGX Thor is among the centralized computers used in the platform, according to reports [1][2].
Apollo is the lidar product line of AEye, Inc. (Nasdaq: LIDR), a developer of lidar sensors and perception software, according to SelfDrive News [3]. The Apollo sensor is described as a high-performance lidar for object detection and classification. According to the same report, the sensor won the "Smart Sensing Technology Innovation Award" at the EAC 2026 Zhiyao Awards in Shanghai [3].
Within the DRIVE ecosystem, Apollo joins other lidar suppliers that
