Will Nvidia's Software Power Self-Driving Cars?

Start-up automobile companies that want to develop self-driving technology often struggle with a lack of real-word data. In this Backstage Pass clip from "The AI/ML Show" recorded on Jan. 12, Motley Fool contributor Jose Najarro explains how Nvidia's (NVDA 3.34%) Ominverse is providing the cutting-edge tools these companies need to power their self-driving cars. 

Jose Najarro: So, now I want to talk a little bit about the software that Nvidia has. First, NVIDIA DRIVE Simulation. This is a digital world created on Nvidia's Omniverse. The most important thing about this digital world is that it follows the rules of physics, and this is what you need when you're collecting data, especially in the autonomous vehicle. You need to know, if the wind is flowing this way, how should my sensors react? If there's some form of weather or movement, let's say the rain this falling, hail is falling, what physics does that change with my overall vehicle? This allows the collection of artificial data to train your autonomous vehicle algorithm.

This also allows the validation of events that rarely happens or cannot be tested often. For example, there might be some events where what should you do if maybe a truck flips over in the air? You can't really collect too much data from that in real life events. If an event like that happens and you have a vehicle that has never seen that, you won't know what that vehicle would do in that scenario. Having this digital world allows you to test simulations or events that might rarely happen and be able to validate them.

One of the examples could be how Toby was talking about the schools, how when those lights turn off and on, if they were being run in some form of online simulation, you would be able to see what happens during those events. I do believe this digital world that's being created with Nvidia's Omniverse is a game-changer for the late starters. One thing Trevor mentioned that Tesla has among its competitors is a lot of real-world mile data. I do believe to some extent this simulation event allows the late starters to not be worried about how some of the competitors might have a lot of data. Because if they obviously throw a lot of money to the servers, to these software solutions, they'll be able to grab a nice amount of mile data or artificial data to compete with some of the leaders.

Then they also have what they called NVIDIA DRIVE Constellation. Like I mentioned, Nvidia has this digital world. But what if you have no cars? Let's say I'm a start-up company and I have no vehicles and I have no way to access data. There's no problem with that. You can buy two servers, which Nvidia calls NVIDIA DRIVE Constellation. One of the servers can run the digital world, while the other can run a digital car. Now, you're collecting data on a real life world without even having a vehicle. Like I mentioned, this is amazing for any start-up company or for any company that just doesn't want to try the hardware yet. They want to see how to program the algorithm first before even attempting to get on the road.

Next, I want to take a quick look at some of the software solutions. Nvidia has NVIDIA DRIVE SDK. For those not familiar with SDK, this pretty much means software development kit. Think of it as a toolbox with different tools to use. Each tool serves a purpose. Nvidia has created numerous and numerous of tools that are inside this tool box. This was the slide. This is the SDK that they provided. You start off with your developer kit, your operating system, your DriveWorks, and then you have different tools. Let's go with all these tools.

First, the SDK, the developer kit. This is the hardware we were just talking about. These solutions, the Hyperion-I which includes all the sensors, all the hardware that you need. Let me go back to where I'm at, so that's where you start off. The hardware previously mentioned, that's these developer kits. Then you have your drive OS. This is the operating system. Think of it as your Windows, the foundation you need to use your computer. Nvidia has created their own operating system where you are able to use these tools. Then you have NVIDIA DriveWorks. This is the ability to transfer your information from your sensors into your program. You have all these sensors, but if there's no way to communicate with your software, there's no point in having all those sensors. That's what DriveWorks does. Then you have Nvidia's DRIVE AV and IX, these are all the different tools. Here, let's say you want to do something like artificial intelligence assistance, co-pilot, let's say you want to do something with mapping, with planning, or perceptions, Nvidia has made all these tools. I think this is very important. I think this is my last slide.

I think that tool box that Nvidia has created is super important because the only way for you to get those tools is to use Nvidia's software solutions. This is a way that Nvidia has given their graphics cards an ability to have a purpose. Now, with more solutions that they release in software, the more automobile companies are going to go out there to use more of their solutions. It's more like a subscription service of the software and also a subscription service on the hardware.