NVIDIA And Baidu To Join Forces To Develop Cloud-Powered Self-Driving Car Platform
IFA 2016 is not the only hub for announcements this week. Baidu CEO Robin Li and NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang at the Baidu World Conference today in Beijing announced that together they will create a cloud-to-car autonomous car platform.
Baidu will bring its cloud platform and mapping technology while NVIDIA will incorporate its self-driving computing platform for HD maps, Level 3 autonomous vehicle control, and automated parking. The ultimate goal is to making driving safer. Baidu and NVIDIA hope to significantly reduce traffic fatalities and make driving more readily available.
NVIDIA announced its DRIVE PX 2 autonomous car processing engine back at CES 2016, and it was demonstrated at the Baidu World Conference. According to NVIDIA, numerous automakers, tier 1 suppliers, and research centers have backed DRIVE PX 2 for autonomous vehicle integration.
The DRIVE PX 2 includes two Parker processors and two Pascal-based GPU’s. The Parker processors offer up to 1.5 teraflops of performance for deep-learning “self-driving AI cockpit systems” and 50-100 percent better multi-core performance. The Pascal-based GPU’s harness the power to handle the complex deep learning algorithms and HD displays.
Look to Uber If you want to check out the Drive PX 2, but missed out on all the action in Beijing. Volvo will use Drive PX 2 for its Drive Me autonomous XC90 pilot-program in 2017. Uber is already offering free rides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with the self-driving Volvo XC90. The company's goal is to ultimately replace its over one million human drivers with self-driving vehicles.
