Nullmax, an AI firm specializing in autonomous driving, recently introduced Nullmax Intelligence (NI) at its 2024 tech conference. This new generation of autonomous driving technology features vision-only, map-free, and end-to-end multimodal capabilities designed to advance automotive intelligence. The NI system includes innovative multimodal and brain-inspired safety models, offering sensory capabilities akin to seeing, hearing, and reading. Nullmax aims to achieve full-scenario autonomous driving by 2025 and expand its AI capabilities to passenger transportation, cargo delivery, and robotics.
Key Highlights
- Vision-only, map-free technology for advanced autonomous driving.
- Multimodal capabilities incorporating visual, auditory, and text inputs.
- Brain-inspired safety model for enhanced safety and flexibility.
- Target for full-scenario autonomous driving by 2025.
- Expansion of AI applications to transportation and robotics.
Advancing Intelligence and Accelerating Evolution
In recent years, the rapid development of automotive intelligence has expanded the application scenarios for autonomous driving. However, challenges such as heavy reliance on rules-based programming, poor generalization, high costs, and rigid performance have hindered widespread adoption.
Urban navigation often demonstrates cautious and rigid behavior, relying heavily on LiDAR and HD map information. This dependency limits their applicability to specific regions or roads and confines high-end functions to luxury or premium vehicle models. Additionally, the limited range of unmanned driving applications restricts their value expansion.
Addressing Industry Challenges
At the launch event, Nullmax introduced the NI system to tackle these challenges in a smarter, more human-like manner. Beyond visual inputs, the NI system integrates sound, text, and gesture information through an end-to-end multimodal model inference. It features a brain-inspired neural network for safety, capable of outputting visual perception results, scene descriptions, and driving behavior information.
The NI system’s architecture processes various inputs like images, sounds, and texts similarly to human cognition while possessing biological instincts to react to environmental conditions. This results in higher levels of safety, intelligence, and flexibility.
Cutting-Edge Research and Technology
Nullmax Intelligence integrates high-level research in static perception, dynamic perception, and temporal fusion. Notable achievements include works accepted by top computer vision conferences like CVPR 2024 and ECCV 2024. It deploys Yan1.2, the first non-Attention mechanism general-purpose large multimodal model in China on vehicles, and collaborates with YanSi Brain-inspired Research Institute to construct a brain-like neural network.
Pure Vision, Map-Free, and Multimodal Model
A key feature of Nullmax Intelligence is its ability to support vision-only, map-free, and multimodal solutions for full-scenario autonomous driving applications. Without relying on LiDAR or stereo cameras, Nullmax performs precise obstacle detection and 3D reconstruction using vision perception, generating real-time local maps for navigation. This achieves true mapless operation without high-precision maps.
The large multimodal approach centers mainly on vision, with other sensor inputs capable of outputting various information such as static and dynamic perception, scene language descriptions, and driving behavior actions. This comprehensive capability offers exceptional generalization and supports full-scenario applications with less computational power, requiring sparse computing power under 100T for full-scenario driving conditions.
About Nullmax
Since its establishment in 2016, Nullmax has pursued a progressive approach to autonomous driving, aiming to realize full-scenario applications and accelerate intelligent transformation in mobility. Looking ahead, Nullmax will continue to explore cutting-edge technologies, build superior products, and promote full-scenario autonomous passenger and cargo transportation. Using AI to lead intelligent mobility, Nullmax aims to expand embodied intelligence applications and achieve technological inclusivity.
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