Tier IV and Isuzu launch L4 autonomous buses on Nvidia platform

Tier IV and Isuzu Motors have announced the deployment of Level 4 autonomous buses built on the Nvidia DRIVE Hyperion computing platform, applied to Isuzu’s ERGA electric and diesel bus models. The announcement, made at Nvidia GTC 2026, combines Tier IV’s Autoware-based software stack with Isuzu’s bus platforms and Nvidia’s DRIVE AGX Thor system-on-chip for high-capacity public transit applications.

The DRIVE AGX Thor system-on-chip delivers up to 2,000 TFLOPS of performance with ASIL-D compliance and hardware redundancy. Tier IV’s software stack is built on Autoware, an open-source autonomous driving framework, providing the Level 4 control layer across both the electric and diesel ERGA variants. Deploying across both powertrains is intended to offer fleet operators flexibility irrespective of their electrification status.

Nvidia Vice President of Automotive Rishi Dhall cited Japan’s national driver shortage as a key real-world driver for the deployment, noting the need for fail-operational, high-performance computing in essential public services.

In a statement, Hiroshi Sato, Senior Executive Officer and Vice President of the Engineering Division at Isuzu, said: “Deploying Level 4 autonomous driving on both our ERGA EV and diesel models ensures that we provide versatile, sustainable, and highly efficient solutions for any fleet. We are bringing Isuzu’s world-renowned reliability to the autonomous age, ensuring safe and high-performance transit at scale.”

Source: Isuzu