LAS VEGAS — At a press event to kick off this year’s CES event, Nvidia unveiled a new artificial intelligence technology for connected cars, designed to help the autonomous vehicles better sense the world around them.
According to Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, Drive PX 2 will allow cars to process up to 24 trillion deep leaning operations per second, which is 10-times the performance of the first incarnation of the technology. The Drive PX is currently being used by more than 50 automotive companies around the world.
“Self-driving cars will revolutionize society,” Huang said addressing the crowd of media, analysts and automakers.
Volvo is a key partner for Nvidia on the project, and plans to use the deep-learning computer in 100 Volvo XC90 SUVs beginning next year as part of its “Drive Me” autonomous-car pilot program.
“Our vision is that no one should be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo by the year 2020,” said Marcus Rothoff, director of the autonomous driving program at Volvo. “Nvidia’s high-performance and responsive automotive platform is an important step towards our vision and perfect for our autonomous drive program and the Drive Me project.”
Nvidia says Volvo’s program is the perfect place to start testing what Drive PX 2 can do.
“Volvo’s Drive Me project is the ideal application of our Drive PX 2 engine and deep learning,” said Rob Csongor, VP and GM of automotive at Nvida. “We are bringing years of work by thousands of Nvidia engineers to help Volvo achieve its safety goals and move self-driving cars from Gothenburg to the rest of the globe.”
The computer is said to have the processing power of 150 Apple Macbook Pros and use a host of sensors to establish a 360-degree view of its surroundings.
