Luminary Cloud Unveils First Physics AI Open-Source Automotive Foundation Model for SUV Aerodynamics in Collaboration with Honda and NVIDIA

The model will be trained on the world's largest open-source aerodynamics database of 25,000 simulations

SAN MATEO, Calif., April 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Luminary Cloud, the leading scalable engineering simulation platform, today announced SHIFT Models, its suite of foundation models. The initial SHIFT-SUV model is the world's first Physics AI foundation model and dataset designed for industrially-relevant automotive SUV aerodynamic analysis. Developed in collaboration with Honda and NVIDIA, this groundbreaking model will enable automotive designers and engineers to perform real-time interactive aerodynamic analysis during the initial design process.

A critical need in automotive aerodynamics development
This foundation model, combined with Luminary's Physics AI virtual wind tunnel, addresses a critical need in the automotive industry by bridging the gap between design aesthetics and engineering performance. Currently designers and engineers are inhibited by the inability to quickly make performance-based decisions in early stage development. While there are a few open-source simulation databases for sedans based on the DrivAer platform, automakers lack a strong foundation model and simulation database for SUVs—the fastest-growing automotive segment globally, accounting for 48% of global car sales in 2023. 

"This project represents a fundamental shift in automotive design methodology," said Pete Schlampp, CEO at Luminary Cloud. "By providing instantaneous, physics-informed aerodynamic feedback, our open-source foundation model enables designers and engineers to collaborate more effectively at the earliest stages of development, saving time and money—while also advancing innovation."

A new modern Physics AI approach to automotive design
The SHIFT-SUV aerodynamic dataset was generated by simulating several thousand geometry variants of the AeroSUV open-geometry model with Luminary's high-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) platform. The foundational model is trained on this dataset using NVIDIA's PhysicsNeMo, leveraging its DoMINO architecture for automotive external-aerodynamics, enabling Physics AI-based simulation (inference). The AI-based workflow is superior to traditional design approaches as it avoids cumbersome workflow steps, providing designers with instant and accurate aerodynamic performance insights. Luminary Cloud's model is deployed in a virtual wind tunnel, allowing designers and engineers to test designs in real-world simulations to bridge the gap between design aesthetics and engineering performance.

At launch, the SHIFT-SUV model is trained on approximately one thousand simulations, with a goal of advancing to 25,000 by the end of the year. Luminary Cloud will rollout new data monthly, with a staged release of pre-trained models at specific dataset size milestones. The dataset within Luminary Cloud's model will be open-source.

The foundation model offers several key benefits for the automotive industry, such as:

• Access to difficult to find (or generate) open-source, industry-relevant data. Luminary Cloud will release both the dataset and foundation model, enabling widespread adoption and customization.
• The largest open-source Physics AI SUV aerodynamics foundation model database. The high-fidelity, transient DDES CFD simulations include various vehicle configurations, body types, and flow conditions–increasing accuracy in the AI model prediction.
• Contribution from Honda to generate design variations to ensure industrially-relevant geometry training set, along with NVIDIA's accelerated GPU computing and NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint for real-time digital twins CAE resources to accelerate simulation database generation and model training with NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo.

"The automotive industry has long needed a solution that accelerates styling and engineering development cycles," said Fong Loon Pan, Principal Aero Design Lead at Honda. "The Physics AI solution built with the Luminary Cloud SHIFT-SUV foundation model and Blender integration provides immediate insights into vehicle performance that designers and engineers need."

"AI and accelerated computing are revolutionizing engineering design and how products are brought to market." said Tim Costa, senior director of CAE and CUDA-X at NVIDIA, "Luminary's innovative approach to develop an open-source foundation model for SUVs leveraging PhysicsNeMo and Omniverse Blueprint exemplifies the power of AI physics for automotive design."

Available now, automotive OEMs, suppliers, and research institutions that are interested in the SHIFT-SUV foundation model and dataset can access it by contacting shift.luminarycloud.com. To receive updates about the foundation model and dataset release or to learn more about implementing Physics AI workflows, visit luminarycloud.com.

About Luminary Cloud, Inc.
Luminary Cloud is a massively scalable engineering simulation platform. It is the fastest and easiest way to generate vast amounts of CFD simulation data for Physics AI, design exploration and optimization. Customers span industries from automotive and aerospace, to leading sporting equipment providers, including Joby Aviation, Piper Aircraft and Trek Bikes. For more information, visit www.luminarycloud.com.

SOURCE Luminary Cloud