Thursday, March 29, 2018

"Nvidia further distances itself from Uber in wake of fatal self-driving crash" (NVDA; FAIL)

Following up on Tuesday's "Nvidia: Does the Whole Self-Driving Timeline Have to Be Reassessed? (NVDA)"
From The Verge:
The chipmaker sought to clarify which elements of its technology are used by Uber’s autonomous vehicles

Uber’s self-driving cars do not use Nvidia’s autonomous vehicle computing platform, Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang clarified on Wednesday. The computer graphics cards maker continues to distance itself from what is considered the first fatal accident involving a self-driving car.

“Uber develops their own sensing and driving technology,” Huang said during a Q&A session with the press at Nvidia’s annual GPU Technology Conference in San Jose.

An Uber self-driving test vehicle struck a pedestrian on March 18th in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix. The vehicle was in autonomous mode at the time of the collision, and a vehicle operator was behind the wheel. Uber immediately suspended its autonomous vehicle testing in Arizona, as well as in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Toronto.

The fatal Uber crash has thrust the ride-hailing company into the worst kind of spotlight. It has also affected the rest of the autonomous vehicle industry. Companies racing to develop autonomous vehicles — vocal advocates of a technology they say will reduce fatal car accidents — now face questions about public safety.

Within days of the crash, competitors such as Intel’s Mobileye publicly criticized Uber’s system, and former supporters and suppliers tried to limit the collateral damage. Arizona governor Doug Ducey, a pro-business politician and champion of autonomous vehicle technology, took the unusual step of suspending Uber’s testing in the state.

Velodyne, which supplies Uber with its LIDAR sensing technology, tried to preempt questions about its product......MORE
Earlier:
"Uber self-driving car death riddle: Was LIDAR blind spot to blame?"