Nvidia to introduce a virtual testing tool for self-driving vehicles

Nvidia Corporation, the globally reputed American technology giant, has reportedly generated a simulated platform for autonomous car manufacturers to test their new technology. The computing platform of the firm – also referred to as the Nvidia Drive Constellation will be available to the chipmaker’s partners in the second half of this year.

Incidentally, Nvidia is already associated with firms such as Volkswagen AG, Uber Technologies, Baidu, and Tesla. The company, since a while now has been expanding its business operations across the self-driving automotive sector. According to Rob Csongor, Vice President of automotive at Nvidia, autonomous vehicles require testing & validation for travelling long distances in order to guarantee safety & reliability that customers demand.

He was further quoted stating that the Drive Constellation has helped the firm address the safety concerns of the end-users. The firm has apparently announced that the virtual simulation will assist in strengthening the algorithms by testing their utility in various custom scenarios.

For the uninitiated, Nvidia Drive Constellation is a computing tool based on two distinct Nvidia servers. While the first one runs the Drive Sim Software for simulating the data taken in by a self-driving car’s sensors, the other server runs on the firm’s Drive Pegasus artificial intelligence tool that helps in making decisions across the virtual world. The firm has also announced that the AI platform processes the simulated information, and then provides a driving command back to the simulator. Nvidia has further announced that the cycle occurs thirty times a second, helping the firms monitor myriad scenarios within a short span.

Simulations have become a common platform for testing self-driving car technology, apparently. Sources claim that they also support real world testing with a swift & more controlled environment, helping in effective validation of the car’s decision-making process.