NVIDIA: The future of transportation is here

NVIDIA, a company you probably never knew, directs the future of

distinctive GPU CPU transport

The acronym GPU stands for Graphics Processing Unit and was popularized by the NVIDIA provider of Silicon Valley in the late 1990s. When video games demanded better visuals and graphics, the role and necessity of the GPU was established. With the development of personal computers and the increasing expectations in terms of video performance, the importance and dependence on GPUs have increased. Different from the CPU (Central Processing Unit), a GPU has 1000 cores to process. Think of a CPU as a road and a GPU as a highway with not one, but many lanes. GPUs have brought graphic and video delivery to life, delighting end users. Some describe the CPU as the brain of a computer and the GPU as the soul. The evolution of the GPU continues as computers become more proficient and algorithms become more complex. The role of a GPU is now better described as a solution to accelerate mathematics, which is a necessity for the calculation of complex algorithms.

GPU Meets the Road

NVIDIA has been a leader in the development of GPUs, originally for graphics and now used as the basis for machine learning, the forerunner of the first one. artificial intelligence. It is clear that the NVIDIA GPU is destined to play a leading role in the mobility sector, in particular the development of autonomous transportation . For those involved in the automotive industry, this is not a surprise. A featured speaker at Detroit Automobili: D this year NVIDIA Senior Director of Automotive, Danny Shapiro held court at NAIAS for the past several years, providing insight into the growing capabilities of GPUs. Danny is proud to point out that almost every automaker uses an NVIDIA GPU for a phase of development, design, engineering, graphics, marketing, screens, infotainment and entertainment. 39, ADAS (Advanced Driver Assist Systems).

Silicon Valley says. . .

In the last ten years, one of the most important gatherings of the technology industry in Silicon Valley has been the GTC (GPU Technology Conference) of NVIDIA. A must for any futuristic, the GTC gathers each spring more than 8000 developers, data scientists, startups, badysts, VC and CXO around the use and development of NVIDIA GPUs. What began as a user / customer group, allowing NVIDIA to engage and share knowledge directly with developers, has evolved into a technology conference focused on the potential use of AI. for companies. Its success has spawned NVIDIA gatherings in other places around the world … Taiwan, Japan, China, Germany, Israel and Washington DC

The highlight of the GTC is NVIDIA's energetic CEO speech , Jensen Huang, during which he unveils new software products and research, as well as NVIDIA's future projects. This year, Jensen proclaimed that NVIDIA believes that "everything that moves will be autonomous or will have autonomous capabilities". He then deployed the NVIDIA Drive Roadmap, his plan for the holistic development of autonomous transportation.

But why?

Transportation is one of the most important industries in the world with a value of more than $ 10 trillion. It faces a number of challenges, including security and congestion. Overcrowded cities continue to increase real estate demands and costs. Adding to the demand is estimated at 2-3 billion parking spaces dot the haze of real estate value.

This pushes people farther away from urban centers and increases travel time. Respectively, as online shopping continues to grow, the delivery of products plugs that infrastructure. All this only worsens as the world's population is expected to increase by one billion in the next twelve years. The prognosis is that autonomous vehicles can help solve these problems, reduce the cost of transportation, change the way we operate and, ultimately, influence the evolution of city design. This is not an easy task. Jensen called it "perhaps the most difficult computer challenge ever". He emphasized that "NVIDIA is dedicated … to the challenge … with so much at stake … focused on security as the most important element."

NVIDIA Drive Roadmap

NVIDIA has dedicated years to provide an end-to-end solution described as NVIDIA Drive Roadmap. An open platform, all key transport sectors and businesses can work together. Currently, it includes 370 partners from around the world, each coming together to help solve this "biggest IT problem".

Additional challenges add to the complexity. The equipment must be "automotive grade". Detroit engineers are well aware of the requirements of any product to be automotive grade. It must be environmentally friendly to withstand the rigors of the outdoors and movement, temperature and vibration. In addition to an already complex environment, it must be able to both detect faults and handle these defects with the car itself. The level of functional safety is so high that it is a first for the automotive industry. The expectations in terms of safety must look like the rigors of the airline industry, which has the highest safety standards. Driver and cab monitoring and AI can ensure that not only does the car do the right thing, but that the driver and cab occupants are also in tune. In addition to being energy efficient and economical.

Super Sensor

A challenge of this magnitude needs to be solved step by step. The idea is, by first gathering the different sensors, so known as sensor fusion, this will create a super sensor. This super sensor could recognize depth, movement, detect objects and even see in the dark. Incredibly difficult algorithms would be needed to accomplish this for such a system and have never been created in full. NVIDIA considers this problem as the ultimate problem of high performance computing … the ultimate problem of AI, and they think they can solve it. NVIDIA has several thousands of dedicated engineers and will devote the next few years to the challenge of building a system that is better than that of humans when they drive themselves. Jensen is aware that NVIDIA does not just build a chip (GPU) or build an AV system but an AV computer. "NVDIA is not a chip company, we are a computer architecture company, and we care that the software will run on different computers for a long period of time so that it can be improved , which means that the fleet will improve over time. "The entire transportation industry should be able to take advantage of NVIDIA's investment to create the company's own. future with autonomous vehicles.The development of vehicles has come first, but it is only a beginning because the AV and AI are quickly starting to revolutionize multiple industries, including the health care, games and entertainment

Testing

As the development of autonomous vehicles has proven incredibly complex and that safety is paramount, the demand for testing scenarios complex is increasing. is a challenge for the safety of the occupants and the environment. As a result, developers are turning to simulators to test the vehicle's capabilities in a controlled and safe environment. The challenge then becomes the need to create a competent simulation. In what we can describe as a "circle of life," NVIDIA uses its history and skills in the gaming world to provide a simulation that can test autonomous systems. Based on the experience of simulating realistic game environments, NVIDIA uses its expertise to create a realistic simulated environment and create a variety of challenges to test capabilities. The rendering of a precise artificial environment will allow companies to safely test systems and components, which will enable them to accelerate development and meet this complex challenge safely. It is difficult to predict if and when autonomous vehicles will be available, but it is clear that NVIDIA is playing and will play an important role in the ongoing development of the future of mobility.