Volvo Cars is teaming with automotive safety supplier Autoliv and artificial intelligence specialist NVIDIA Corp. to develop advanced systems and software for self-driving cars, the automaker said.

The companies will also collaborate with Zenuity, a newly formed automotive software development joint venture equally owned by Volvo Cars and Autoliv. Volvo Cars said it is committed to having Level 4 autonomous cars for sale by 2021.

As part of the collaboration, Volvo Cars, Autoliv and Zenuity will use NVIDIA’s AI car computing platform as the foundation for their own advanced software development.

“This cooperation with NVIDIA places Volvo Cars, Autoliv and Zenuity at the forefront of the fast-moving market to develop next-generation autonomous driving capabilities and will speed up the development of Volvo’s own commercially available autonomous drive cars,” said Hakan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars.

Volvo Cars, Autoliv, Zenuity and NVIDIA will work together to develop systems that can use deep learning — a form of artificial intelligence — to recognize objects in the environment, anticipate potential threats and navigate safely.

“Artificial intelligence is the essential tool for solving the incredibly demanding challenge of autonomous driving,” said Jensen Huang, chief executive of NVIDIA. “We are building on our earlier collaboration with Volvo Cars to create production-ready vehicles that will make driving safer, lead to greener cities and reduce congestion on our roads.”

The systems can compare real-time situational awareness with a known high-definition map, enabling them to plan a safe route, to drive precisely along the route, and to adjust to ever-changing circumstances. These systems also perform other critical functions such as stitching camera inputs to create a complete surround-view of the car.

Zenuity will provide Volvo Cars with self-driving software. At the same time, Autoliv will also sell this software to third-party OEMs.