Nvidia’s promise of Level 5 autonomy shouldn’t be taken lightly. Most automakers and tech companies speak carefully about the levels of autonomy, avoiding claims on which they may not ultimately be able to deliver. Most car companies have said they will probably skip Level 3 and 4 because it’s too dangerous, and go right to Level 5. So for Nvidia to state definitively it can deliver the highest level of autonomous driving starting next year is pretty staggering — and maybe a little bit reckless.
Nvidia claims to have shrunk down its GPU, making it an easier fit for production vehicles. Pegasus contains an amount of power equivalent to “a 100-server data center in the form-factor size of a license plate,” Shapiro said.
Nvidia’s original architecture for self-driving cars, the platform then uses an AI algorithm-based operating system and a cloud-based, high-definition 3D map to help the car understand its environment, know its location, and anticipate potential hazards while driving.
Nvidia has continued to push its tech further with the introduction last year of Xavier, a complete system-on-a-chip processor that is essentially an AI brain for self-driving cars. And Pegasus is the equivalent of two Xavier units, plus two next-generation discrete GPUs, Nvidia says. The new system was introduced at a GPU conference in Munich, Germany on Tuesday.
