Volkswagen and Nvidia to end car crashes

In a keynote speech on the opening night of the biggest tech convention on earth, the CEO of microchip manufacturer Nvidia has announced a deal to supply the world's largest car-maker with its autonomous car computer hardware and software architecture.

Nvidia revealed a brand-new graphical processing unit (GPU) dubbed Drive Xavier. Showcased by Jensen Huang, Nvidia's head honcho, during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, it's claimed to finally allow the meaningful implementation of self-driving cars.

Volkswagen joins the likes of Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac, Hyundai, Toyota, Tesla, Volvo, ZF and Uber to sign up with Nvidia to supply the computing power to run the incredibly complex task autonomous driving.

Huang believes all cars will be autonomous in the future, which will help the transport industry – currently worth around $10 trillion, according to the tech billionaire – to save not only money but lives.

He said the 82 million vehicle accidents that occur every year could soon be a thing of the past.

Huang was joined on stage by Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess, who confirmed the world's largest car-maker will use Nvidia processors and software architecture to fast-track its autonomous car offerings, which are expected to begin rolling out as early as 2020 – including a successor to the Kombi.

The charismatic Taiwanese-born Nvidia CEO says development of the computer software and hardware required to run autonomous vehicles, or AVs, is the biggest computing problem ever faced by humanity.

"The number of challenges necessary to solve in order for the automotive industry to bring AV to the world is utterly daunting," he said.

"We've built PCs, laptops, game consoles, super computers – now I can tell you, without exception, building a computer for autonomous vehicles is at a level of complexity the world has never known.

"This computer is on all the time, monitoring all the sensors coming at it. It can never fail -- it can never fail -- because lives are at stake. It has to make the right decisions running software the world has never known how to write," cautioned Huang.

Available to car-makers before the end of 2018 with testing set to begin early this year, the Drive Xavier GPU is claimed to have the power to deliver Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous competency in cars – extended hands-free and eyes-off driving – and revolutionise what car companies can do with their vehicles, according to Huang.

The practical outcome of the new Xavier processor will only be used on prototype vehicles in 2018, because legislation is still catching up to the technology.

But the Nividia supremo is confident of his wares, suggesting the level of artificial intelligence and built-in failsafes are now at levels similar to rival human operators.

"Even the aviation industry is starting to knock on our door," he said.

Dr Herbert said Nvidia's developments in AV computing and AI were nothing less than revolutionary.

"I think everyone has the feeling that the automotive world will change a lot in the next 10 to 15 years," he said.

"I think it will be more exciting than today. Cars will become more important, more exciting, sexier than today. I think driving will be totally different to today. We love cars, most of us love them -- the brands, the designs, the performance.

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"But it has negatives -- accidents, pollution, CO2, other exhausts -- and this will change a lot," he added, careful not to mention the dieselgate scandal that has cost VW billions of dollars in fines, particularly in the USA.

"The car will lose a lot of its negatives and is going positive. It will be much more affordable, it will be safer and more environmentally friendly," said Dr Diess.

"What I've seen today is very encouraging. We will see a major change in the next five to 10, 15 years -- two lifecycles. It's amazing."