20 TOPs —

Nvidia and Bosch team up to build an AI supercomputer for your self-driving car

The key is Xavier, Nvidia's forthcoming supercomputer system-on-chip.

-

Enlarge / A cutaway image of the Bosch/Nvidia car supercomputer.
Nvidia

It seems that barely a day goes by without news of a tech company teaming up with the auto industry to advance the art of self-driving vehicles. On Tuesday, it was Nvidia and Bosch's turn. In an announcement at Bosch Connected World in Berlin, Germany, the two companies revealed that they are collaborating on an onboard computer capable of running the AI necessary for self-driving.

Based on Nvidia's Drive PX technology—which also powers semi-autonomous Teslas—the Bosch will also use Nvidia's forthcoming "Xavier" AI system-on-chip. Nvidia says that Xavier is capable of 20 trillion operations per second while drawing just 20 watts of power, meaning the Bosch car computer should be smaller and cheaper than Nvidia's current Drive PX 2 unit.

"We want automated driving to be possible in every situation. As early as the next decade, driverless cars will also be a part of everyday life. Bosch is advancing automated driving on all technological fronts. We aim to assume a leading role in the field of artificial intelligence, too," Bosch CEO Dr. Volkmar Denner said in a statement.

"Self-driving cars is a challenge that can finally be solved with recent breakthroughs in deep learning and artificial intelligence," said Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia's founder and CEO. "Using DRIVE PX AI car computer, Bosch will build automotive-grade systems for the mass production of autonomous cars."

However, it will be some time before any of us are being driven around by cars powered by this collaboration; production is expected "by the beginning of the next decade," according to Bosch.

Jonathan M. Gitlin Jonathan is the automotive editor at Ars Technica, covering all things car-related. Jonathan lives and works in Washington, D.C.
Email jonathan.gitlin@arstechnica.com // Twitter @drgitlin

5 Reader Comments

  1. Kilroy420 Ars Scholae Palatinae
    Is that an image of the new Nvidia Xavier SoC or the PX2?

    Labeling images or providing a caption is always helpful.
    1053 posts | registered
  2. Dr Gitlin Moderator et Subscriptor
    Kilroy420 wrote:
    Is that an image of the new Nvidia Xavier SoC or the PX2?

    Labeling images or providing a caption is always helpful.


    Apologies—image updated.
    14544 posts | registered
  3. ziegler Ars Scholae Palatinae
    I am sure they spent a goodly portion of the presentation about how secure this system would be.......

    Right?
    2309 posts | registered
  4. Invid Ars Praefectus
    Quote:
    However, it will be some time before any of us are being driven around by cars powered by this collaboration; production is expected "by the beginning of the next decade," according to Bosch.


    Sounds like early 2020's for production silicon to me, especially if they expect self driving cars to be ubiquitous within a decade. That's not too far off. Cool.

    I can't wait to see what kind of ridesharing services crop up around this. Our current resource allocation is extremely wasteful. Why do I need full time ownership of a car when I only use it 5-10% of the day? I can see a future where I just purchase a share of an autonomous vehicle for the times I actually need it.

    Something that allows market forces to help allocate resources would be awesome...early mornings on business days should cost more, but working the night shift should bring huge transportation cost savings for example.
    4089 posts | registered
  5. fuzzyfuzzyfungus Ars Scholae Palatinae
    Any comment on the ability of these new expert systems to detect regulatory testing environments and modify their behavior appropriately?

    Asking for a friend.
    3968 posts | registered

You must to comment.