Nvidia, a pioneer in developing the computer graphics chips that revolutionized video gaming, is taking its more recent focus on ‘deep learning’ and Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the road, working with Paccar to develop solutions for autonomous vehicles.
The collaboration was shared by NvidiaFounder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang during his keynote at the Bosch Connected World conference in Berlin last week. Separately, he provided details of Nvidia’s partnership with Bosch, the world’s largest automotive supplier, on self-driving car technology.
“This is probably the largest single mass of a product that we’ve helped make,” said Huang, addressing a crowd of more than 2,000 executives, developers and others attending the event.
Paccar, which manufactures the Kenworth, Peterbilt and DAF lines of trucks, has developed a proof-of-concept self-driving truck with SAE Level 4 capability built on Nvidia Drive PX 2 technology, trained on deep neural networks. Level 4 capability is defined as a system that drives itself.
“Paccar is exploring automated driving systems and we are excited about what our collaboration on artificial intelligence with Nvidia has delivered so far,” Paccar CEO Ron Armstrong said separately.
During his keynote, Huang showcased a video of a Paccar semi-tractor trailer driving on a closed-course, handling a wide range of situations without a driver behind the wheel. The solution is designed to improve driver productivity, enhance transportation efficiency and increase safety.
The video noted the massive potential size of the market for self-driving trucks. There are currently 300 million trucks worldwide, driving over 1.2 trillion miles annually.
