Driverless Roborace to Run on Nvidia’s Drive PX 2

Burney Simpson

Nvidia will power the world’s first autonomous motor sports car with its Drive PX 2 Artificial Intelligence supercomputer, Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia’s co-founder and CEO, said during his keynote speech at the GPU Technology Conference.

The Roborace Formula E series features racing between high-performance electric-powered, autonomously-driven cars. It is scheduled to begin in late 2016 or early 2017 (See “Roborace Teases ‘Wild’ Car Design for First Ever Driverless Car Race Series”).

Every one-hour Roborace will pit 10 teams, each with two driverless cars equipped with the Nvidia computer, according to mybroadband.

The cars do not need human drivers so the design is sleeker and more compact.

Nvidia launched the Drive PX 2 chip for driverless cars at CES 2016 in Las Vegas in January, claiming it could run 24 trillion operations per second, and power 12 video cameras, LiDAR, radar, and other sensors. The Drive PX 2 is the size of a lunch box and is said to have the computing power of 150 MacBook Pros.

Nvidia’s GPUs are used by such auto OEMs as Audi, BMW, Honda, Tesla, and Volvo.

The GPU conference has grown as graphics processing units have evolved from graphics chips for gaming to important components for artificial intelligence and driverless systems.

Huang also discussed a self-driving platform developed by AutonomouStuff, the Morton, Ill.-based single-source supplier of autonomous components and services.

A black 2016 MKZ using the firm’s Automated Development Research Platform was featured in a video showing improvements made by the self-driving car “after 3,000 miles of learning.”

AutonomouStuff is displaying the platform at its booth at the GPU show with Nvidia.