CES 2016 – Nvidia Drive PX 2 Is ‘Most Powerful’ Smart Car Supercomputer

Nvidia claims its new Drive PX 2 platform will be the world’s most powerful engine for in-vehicle artificial intelligence when it appears in smart cars towards the end of 2016.

Capable of performing 24 trillion operations a second, the Drive PX 2 has the same computing power as 150 MacBook Pros.

The platform already has its first major customer. Swedish carmaker Volvo will use the system to power a fleet of 100 Volvo XC90 SUVs set to hit the road next year in its Drive Me autonomous-car pilot program.

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The Drive PX 2 platform (pictured left) combines data from 12 cameras, along with input from lidar, radar and ultrasonic sensors to create 360-degree situational awareness around the car, allowing it to determine precisely where the car is and to compute a safe, comfortable trajectory.

This is all powered by two of the latest Nvidia Tegra processors plus two of the company’s most advanced GPUs, which means the system can accurately detect objects and identify them, again helping to calculate a safe route for the vehicle.

The deep learning capabilities of the DRIVE PX 2 platform also allow to quickly learn how to address the challenges of everyday driving, such as unexpected road debris, erratic drivers and construction zones.

The technology is also able to deal with problems that currently trouble modern vision techniques, such as poor weather conditions like rain, snow and fog, and difficult lighting conditions like sunrise, sunset and extreme darkness.

Nvidia’s first generation Drive PX platform, released last summer, was used by carmakers including Audi, Ford and BMW to forward their understanding and development of autonomous driving concepts.

“Drivers deal with an infinitely complex world,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia co-founder and CEO. “Modern artificial intelligence and GPU breakthroughs enable us to finally tackle the daunting challenges of self-driving cars.

“Nvidia’s GPU is central to advances in deep learning and supercomputing. We are leveraging these to create the brain of future autonomous vehicles that will be continuously alert, and eventually achieve superhuman levels of situational awareness. Autonomous cars will bring increased safety, new convenient mobility services and even beautiful urban designs – providing a powerful force for a better future.”

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