“Together, Lenovo and NVIDIA are driving a new era of Hybrid AI for businesses, designing the next generation of technology that delivers an AI-powered future now and unlocks the power of their data anywhere it is created. Lenovo’s expanded engineering and time to market partnership with NVIDIA simplifies the path to generative AI for all and helps customers anywhere rapidly use cutting-edge AI to transform their business”, said Kirk Skaugen, President of Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group.

The offerings were described by Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang and NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang at the annual global Lenovo Tech World keynote held in Austin, Texas, where they discussed businesses’ need for end-to-end solutions that bring together accelerated systems, AI software and expert services to quickly build and run custom AI models using their own data.

“With generative AI driving the greatest technology transformation of our time, enterprises are seeking solutions that give them the flexibility to develop and deploy workloads across their workstations, data centers and clouds. NVIDIA and Lenovo are providing a comprehensive portfolio of hybrid AI systems that businesses can rely on to power generative AI from virtually anywhere”, said Bob Pette, Vice President of Enterprise Platforms at NVIDIA.

Supported by the new Lenovo AI Professional Services Practice, the solutions enable enterprises to use a hybrid cloud approach – building their custom AI models using NVIDIA AI Foundations cloud service and then running them with on-prem Lenovo systems powered by NVIDIA’s latest hardware and software designed for generative AI.

Riders will be able to access the service via the Moovit app as well as the SIXT app. The autonomous robotaxi offering will be included in SIXT’s holistic mobility platform ONE, which combines in just one app products for ride hailing as well as car rental, car sharing and car subscriptions. By integrating the services of cooperation partners like Mobileye, the ONE mobility platform gives SIXT customers worldwide access to more than 200,000 vehicles, 1,500 cooperation partners, around 1.5 million drivers and soon even robotaxi services.

The autonomous robotaxi option will be part of the ride-hailing service SIXT ride and was demonstrated during Alexander Sixt’s keynote walk-on. Mobileye also unveiled the vehicles – branded with MoovitAV and SIXT – that will be produced in volume and used for the robotaxi service in Germany. It is the first time Mobileye has publicly displayed its fully integrated self-driving system, known as Mobileye Drive™, in a vehicle that will be used for commercial, driverless ride-hailing services.

A recently enacted autonomous vehicle (AV) law permits driverless vehicles on German roads, allowing Mobileye robotaxis to begin early-rider testing on Munich streets in 2022. The fleet will thereafter move from test to commercial operations upon regulatory approval. Gelsinger said:

“Germany has shown global leadership toward a future of autonomous mobility by expediting crucial AV legislation,” 

Alexander Sixt, Co-CEO of Sixt SE, added:

“This strategic collaboration is the next step in expanding our integrated mobility platform ONE and underlines our company’s evolution towards becoming the industry’s leading provider of innovative and digital premium mobility. We are delighted to leverage the remarkable technology leadership of Mobileye to bring driverless mobility to customers in Germany and beyond.”

Mobileye will own the robotaxi fleet used in the Munich service, while SIXT will draw upon its established expertise in providing, maintaining and operating the fleet. The vehicles will include the MoovitAV service and SIXT branding once the service launches in Munich, to make it easy for customers to distinguish between traditional ride-hailing and the autonomous fleet vehicles.