Tomorrow’s Autonomous Technologies Solving Today’s Challenges

AI innovation isn’t just for the next generation — it’s transforming industries and communities today.

Transportation is a key area for this rapid growth, as pressures from the COVID pandemic and persistent infrastructure issues require robust, long-term solutions. Autonomous driving technology is opening up solutions to these challenges and paving the way for new business models.

At GTC 2021 , these innovations and more will be on display as AI leaders and experts gather to share their latest work and insights, starting with a keynote from NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang on November 9.

Autonomous vehicles are one of the most complex computing challenges today. Camera, radar, lidar and ultrasonic sensors surrounding the car generate petabytes of data that must be processed in a fraction of a second. Vehicles must be trained, tested and validated on millions of potential driving scenarios.?

As this technology develops toward fully driverless vehicles, companies and developers are applying current progress to improve safety and efficiency in the near term.

Long-Haul Solutions

Around the world, one of the primary modes of delivery and logistics is experiencing the dual pressures of high consumer demand and a low supply of drivers.

E-commerce orders increased nearly 60 percent year-over-year in 2020, according to last-mile technology vendor Convey Inc., with 36 percent of shoppers opting for same-day delivery. At the same time, the trucking industry is experiencing a 92 percent turnover rate — the amount of workers joining or leaving the field in a given year — and the American Trucking Associations estimates it will be short 160,000 drivers by 2028.

In the U.K., driver shortages have led to major supply issues, causing McDonald’s to run out of milkshakes and the world-famous Wetherspoon’s pub to find itself precipitously low on beer.

Autonomous driving can help ease the strain of trucking demand, as well as increase efficiency, by operating around the clock with lower requirements for human labor.?

At GTC, Volvo Group will share how it is building vehicles to provide robust solutions for this increasingly dire situation.?

Startup Plus will outline the current challenges and progress toward mass deployment of autonomous trucks. Additionally, Inception members Kodiak Robotics, Embark Trucks, Fernride and Locomation will sit down for a panel discussion on how autonomous trucking companies are putting machines alongside human drivers and making trucking easier, cheaper and greener.

New Answers to Old Problems

As cities begin to re-open and workers go back into the office, traffic is returning to — and in some states, exceeding — pre-pandemic levels, leading to lost time and productivity.

For example, in New York City, residents lost an average of 140 hours in 2019 sitting in traffic. Vehicles in the city travel an average of 12 miles per hour for short-distance trips, according to INRIX data.

In other urban areas, it’s virtually impossible to get around without a personal vehicle. In Las Vegas, the average commute via public transportation is one hour, while drivers spend just 25 minutes in the car, on average. In addition, going car-free can be more expensive, with transit commuters spending $5,000 more annually on their commutes than those who commute by personal vehicle.

Solving these massive inefficiencies requires a solution that is safe and easily accessible. At GTC, autonomous shuttle startup Optimus Ride will discuss how it’s working with local communities to bridge these transportation gaps using existing infrastructure.

company is already operating an autonomous pilot in New York City and testing in cities across the country.

Boston-based Motional will walk through the software infrastructure it has built to develop robotaxis for widespread deployment. The startup has been offering public robotaxi rides in Las Vegas, using the data to further train and validate its vehicles.

Even More to Explore

GTC will feature even more sessions on autonomous vehicle development, as well as other industries transformed by AI, such as robotics, healthcare, supercomputing and more. Explore these 500 sessions throughout the week as well as in-depth talks from NVIDIA experts at DRIVE Developer Day on November 8.

Some highlights include:

Daimler Trucks: Axel Gern, CTO of Daimler Autonomous Technology Group , outlines the truck maker’s strategy to build software-defined vehicles for an autonomous future.

Oxbotica: Paul Newman, founder and CTO at Oxbotica , details how high-fidelity simulation can help address training and validation bottlenecks in autonomous vehicle development.

Zenseact: ?dg?rd Andersson, CEO of Zenseact , explains how the supplier is developing, validating and continuously improving AV software to deliver safer, more efficient transportation.

GTC will also host virtual networking opportunities, special events and other interactive activities.?

Registration is free — I encourage you to attend to learn how AI is transforming the future of automotive.

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