Nvidia is temporarily suspending its self-driving car tests on public roads worldwide.

The company best known for its powerful graphics cards has in recent years waded into the self-driving car waters, and it currently counts over 370 partners in the space.

But following a fatal accident last week in which an Uber self-driving car struck and killed a pedestrian while in autonomous driving mode, Nvidia is suspending its testing.

"The accident was tragic. It's a reminder of how difficult [self-driving car] technology is and that it needs to be approached with extreme caution and the best safety technologies," Nvidia said in a statement.

"This tragedy is exactly why we've committed ourselves to perfecting this life-saving technology. Ultimately [autonomous vehicles] will be far safer than human drivers, so this important work needs to continue. We are temporarily suspending the testing of our self-driving cars on public roads to learn from the Uber incident. Our global fleet of manually driven data collection vehicles continue to operate."

The data collection vehicles are cars in the traditional sense; a driver is at the wheel controlling the vehicle while an autonomous sensor suite collects data, according to TechCrunch. News of Nvidia's self-driving car testing suspension was first reported by Reuters.

Speaking at the GTC 2018 conference in San Jose, California, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang acknowledged the Uber fatality, noting that while autonomy is where the transportation industry is headed, "Safety is the single most important thing."

Nvidia announced in January that Uber had selected Nvidia technology to power its self-driving car AI, though Nvidia computing tech was already present in Uber's first fleet of Volvo XC90 SUVs.

At the same time it's announcing the cessation of real-world testing, Nvidia also unveiled a new system for testing self-driving cars, one that takes place in virtual rather than real-world environments.

Nvidia DRIVE Constellation is a cloud-based computing platform that will test driving scenarios using photo-realistic simulations.

The system runs on two servers. The first server powers the Nvidia DRIVE Sim, a software set that emulates a self-driving car's various sensors, including its cameras, lidar and radar.

The second server houses the Nvidia DRIVE Pegasus AI, which will process the gathered data as if it's coming from sensors in a self-driving car on the road.

The testing may be taking place in a virtual environment, but it's happening on the same hardware and software that would be found in a self-driving car, Nvidia's Danny Shapiro explained in a briefing.

The simulator is constantly validating information coming from the DRIVE Pegasus AI, while the DRIVE Sim can create virtual driving scenarios ranging from rain to glare to limited night vision.

Nvidia says that in addition to being a safer way to test the technology for self-driving cars, the DRIVE Constellation also allows for faster testing; collecting data from billions of miles on virtual roads and innumerable scenarios in much less time than self-driving cars could gather on the road.

It's not yet clear to what degree Nvidia will rely on virtual testing versus real-world testing once its public driving tests resume.

Nvidia's announcements come at a pivotal time for the self-driving car industry.

Less than 10 days ago, an Uber self-driving car struck and killed a pedestrian who was walking outside of a crosswalk in Tempe, Arizona. The car was in autonomous mode when it struck the victim, and it is the first known pedestrian death involving a self-driving car.

Following the accident, Uber suspended all self-driving car tests in North America. Earlier today, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey suspended Uber's ability to test and operate self-driving cars on public roads in the state.

The accident has called into the question the safety of testing self-driving cars on public roads.

It remains to be seen how effective Nvidia DRIVE Constellation is at putting self-driving cars through the paces and how that testing translates into the real world.

Testing may not involve putting self-driving cars on public streets, with all the safety issues that entails, but virtual environments aren't real ones, no matter how authentic the simulations seem. </s> (CNN Money) — Nvidia is temporarily pausing its self-driving car tests on public roads.

Nvidia is best known for providing technology for other companies in sectors ranging from bitcoin mining to self-driving cars, but it also has its own fleet of self-driving cars, used for research and development purposes.

The move to pause the tests comes one week after a self-driving Uber car, which incorporates Nvidia technology in its self-driving vehicles, struck and killed a woman in Arizona.

Nvidia said Tuesday it will halt testing of its cars until it learns more about the incident, in which 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg was killed while walking her bicycle across a street.

“Ultimately AVs will be far safer than human drivers, so this important work needs to continue. We are temporarily suspending the testing of our self-driving cars on public roads to learn from the Uber incident,” a Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement sent to CNN on Tuesday. “Our global fleet of manually driven data collection vehicles continue to operate.”

A source familiar with the situation said that Nvidia’s decision was made “out of respect for what happened” last week and not because the company believes its technology to be unsafe.

Related: Why is everyone so excited about Nvidia?

Uber proactively suspended self-driving operations in all cities following the accident.

Last week, Toyota also halted its self-driving car testing. </s> Nvidia said on Tuesday that it will suspend self-driving tests across the globe following a fatal Uber accident last week in which a self-driving vehicle killed a pedestrian in Arizona.

"Ultimately [automated vehicles] will be far safer than human drivers, so this important work needs to continue. We are temporarily suspending the testing of our self-driving cars on public roads to learn from the Uber incident. Our global fleet of manually driven data collection vehicles continue to operate," a Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement.

The chipmaker is testing self-driving technology globally including in New Jersey, Santa Clara, Japan and Germany.

Shares of Nvidia lost 4 percent on Tuesday, following the announcement. </s> Nvidia will suspend its autonomous vehicle testing on public roads in the aftermath of Uber’s fatal crash in Arizona, Reuters reports. Uber is a customer of Nvidia’s, using the chipmaker’s computing platform in its fleet of self-driving cars.

Nvidia had been testing its self-driving cars in New Jersey, California, Japan, and Germany. The company is hosting its annual GPU Technology Conference in San Jose this week, where it is expected to make several announcements regarding its automotive products.

“The accident was tragic. It’s a reminder of how difficult SDC technology is and that it needs to be approached with extreme caution and the best safety technologies,” a Nvidia spokesperson said in an email. “This tragedy is exactly why we’ve committed ourselves to perfecting this life-saving technology. Ultimately AVs will be far safer than human drivers, so this important work needs to continue. We are temporarily suspending the testing of our self-driving cars on public roads to learn from the Uber incident. Our global fleet of manually driven data collection vehicles continue to operate.”

Uber had been using Nvidia’s tech for a while

The company is the latest to halt autonomous vehicle testing after a self-driving Uber car struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, last week. Toyota also said it would pause its testing in cities across the globe, citing the “emotional toll” of the Uber crash on its safety drivers.

In addition to testing its own self-driving cars, Nvidia also manufactures powerful computing platforms for use in autonomous vehicles. Earlier this year, Nvidia began selling its Xavier chip for use in self-driving cars. The chipmaker says it has 320 clients in the automotive space.

Uber has been using Nvidia’s self-driving technology in its autonomous test cars for a while, though the companies only just started to talk about it earlier this year. Uber has said it would use Nvidia’s tech in its eventual self-driving fleets of Volvos as well as the company’s autonomous trucks. But Uber has also halted its AV testing in all the cities in which it operates, and the governor of Arizona suspended the company from testing its self-driving cars in the state “indefinitely.”

The types of computers produced by Nvidia and its competitors like Intel are arguably the most important part of the driverless car. Everything the vehicle “sees” with its sensors, all of the images, mapping data, and audio material picked up by its cameras needs to be processed by giant PCs in order for the vehicle to make split-second decisions. All this processing must be done with multiple levels of redundancy to ensure the highest level of safety.

Update March 27th, 1:17PM ET: post has been updated to include a new statement from Nvidia. </s> Chipmaker Nvidia has revealed it has suspended self-driving tests across the globe, a week after an Uber Technologies Inc autonomous vehicle hit and killed a woman crossing the street in Arizona.

"Ultimately, autonomous vehicles will be far safer than human drivers, so this important work needs to continue. We are temporarily suspending the testing of our self-driving cars on public roads to learn from the Uber incident," a company spokesman said.

"Our global fleet of manually driven data collection vehicles continue to operate."

Uber suspended North American tests of its self-driving vehicles after the fatal collision on March 18 in Tempe, Arizona.

The incident has raised questions about the safety of autonomous technology in general, and of Uber's system specifically.

Nvidia is testing its technology globally including in New Jersey, Santa Clara, Japan and Germany.

"Nvidia has no choice but to take steps in the context of the fear, uncertainty and outrage likely to be stimulated by a robot car killing a human being," Roger Lanctot, an automotive technology analyst with Strategy Analytics, wrote in a blog post.

"This is precisely the type of event that is capable of slaying a nascent industry in the crib," Lanctot wrote.

Analyst Kinngai Chan from Summit Insight Group does not expect the suspension to hurt Nvidia's earnings.

The question is whether it would be one or two years before fully autonomous vehicles are ready, Chan said, adding if it's pushed out further then the multiple for stock needs to come down as the valuation is very high.

Nvidia, which generates bulk of its revenue from chips used in gaming and data centers, reported automotive revenue of US$132 million in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 28. That mainly includes revenue from infotainment and development agreements for self-driving cars.

Nvidia leads the autonomous industry with its artificial intelligence platform and has partnered with major global automakers such as Volkswagen, Tesla and Audi AG.

Uber has been using Nvidia's computing technology since its first test fleet of Volvo SC90 SUVS were deployed in 2016.

Around 320 firms involved in self-driving cars - from software developers, automakers and their suppliers, sensor and mapping companies - use Nvidia Drive platform, according to the company's website. </s> SANTA CLARA — As Google, Uber and Tesla fight for control of the self-driving car market, another company better known for its gaming chips than its wheels is positioned to cash-in on the transportation revolution.

Nvidia has quietly become one of the top suppliers of the “brains” that control self-driving cars — the super computers that sit nestled inside the trunk or perhaps tucked behind the glove compartment and interpret visual cues like red lights and pedestrians, telling the vehicle how to respond. The Santa Clara-based chipmaker has racked up deals with big carmakers including Tesla, Audi, Mercedes, Toyota and Volvo and is poised to power a large portion of the burgeoning self-driving car industry, a market that is expected to hit $77 billion by 2035.

“Nvidia is obviously going to be one of the strongest players in this area,” said Gartner research director Mike Ramsey.

And by taking on self-driving cars, Nvidia is pulling off a key move from the Silicon Valley playbook. Expanding into new industries — think Google trying its hand at everything from drones to high-speed internet — is vital for any large company hoping to stay relevant in a world where innovative technology can quickly become obsolete, Ramsey said. Diversifying can be tricky, as proven by Yahoo’s unsuccessful attempt to expand into media. But if it works, it can act as insurance against future upsets.

“You never know when someone is going to come along in your core industry and kick your butt,” Ramsey said. “You’re not guaranteed to be at the top.”

While fully autonomous cars are still several years away, Nvidia’s newfound dominance in self-driving cars and early expertise in artificial intelligence is paying off. Its stock price tripled over the past 12 months, and it was the best performing company in the S&P 500 last year — largely because investors see a coming windfall in AI and self-driving tech, experts say. Those up-and-coming sectors already helped boost Nvidia’s revenue last quarter nearly 50 percent from the year before.

“We’re at the very beginning of the AI revolution,” Danny Shapiro, Nvidia’s senior director of automotive work, said during a recent interview. “We’re fueling that revolution, and we’re extremely optimistic about where it’s going to take us.”

Founded in 1993, Nvidia became known for building powerful graphics processors (GPUs) used for rendering stunning video game visuals. About five years ago, Nvidia realized its GPUs also could be used for artificial intelligence — a major turning point for the company just as AI was becoming the hottest commodity in Silicon Valley. Big names including Google, Facebook, Shazam and Netflix started using Nvidia’s chips, running applications such as the facial recognition software that identifies people in Facebook photos.

Nvidia soon expanded into self-driving cars. In 2015, the company revealed the Nvidia Drive PX — the world’s first in-car super computer. Last year Nvidia unveiled the Drive PX 2, which is about the size of a license plate and boasts the power of 150 MacBook Pros.

“That has now snowballed into them being basically the leader for autonomous driving hardware for the auto industry,” said Egil Juliussen, director of research and principal analyst for automotive technology at IHS Markit.

But Nvidia isn’t alone in the race to dominate the market. Intel, so far Nvidia’s biggest competitor in self-driving cars, plans to have autonomous BMWs powered by Intel processors in production by 2021. Intel bought Mobileye, a leader in computer vision and mapping technology for self-driving cars, for $15.3 billion in March, giving the chipmaker a major step up in the autonomous vehicle game. Nvidia also may have to contend with competition from other chip companies like Qualcomm, or even Google and Apple, which reportedly also are making their own chips that could end up in self-driving cars.

Nvidia faces another risk, Ramsey said. Though many companies today are using Nvidia’s high-powered processors to develop self-driving software, once they perfect that software, they may decide they can run it with an Nvidia competitor’s less expensive chip, he said.

Nvidia already has more than 80 automakers, software firms, transportation network providers and other companies using its chips to develop self-driving car technology, and last month Nvidia added Volvo as one of its newest partners. Together Nvidia and Volvo, which this month said it will put electric motors in all its cars within two years, hope to build autonomous vehicles that will be ready for sale by 2021, Nvidia said in a news release.

NuTonomy, the Massachusetts-based self-driving software startup that teamed up with Lyft last month, also uses Nvidia chips. The startup is considering using Nvidia’s processor in the autonomous Lyft cars that are expected to hit the road in Boston soon, said NuTonomy co-founder and CEO Karl Iagnemma.

Meanwhile, Nvidia is growing at warp speed. The company’s market cap skyrocketed 232 percent last year over the year before, and it landed as No. 18 on the SV150, this newspaper’s annual ranking of Silicon Valley public companies by revenue. Nvidia is building a new Santa Clara campus to handle its expansion, and plans to move 3,000 people in by the end of the year.

Last quarter, Nvidia pulled in $409 million in revenue from companies using its processors in their data centers, mostly for artificial intelligence. That’s a 186 percent increase from the year before — growth which impressed ARK Invest analyst James Wang.

“I cover the whole internet space, and there’s nothing that behaves like that,” he said. “That’s just an incredible amount of growth, and that shock and awe factor definitely helped lift Nvidia’s stock.”

Meanwhile, revenue from Nvidia’s sales in the automotive industry, from self-driving and in-car entertainment technology, climbed 24 percent. For now, sales in AI and auto tech account for just a fraction of Nvidia’s total revenue — 21 percent and 7 percent, respectively — while gaming still brings in slightly more than half. But experts say that balance may shift as the markets for AI and self-driving cars develop.

“Artificial intelligence,” said Ramsey, “of which self-driving cars are a part, is totally their future.” </s> DETROIT (AP) – Uber has decided to stop testing autonomous vehicles on California public roads by letting its state permit expire on Saturday without renewing it.

If the ride-hailing service wants to return to the state, it will have to get a new permit and address any investigations into a crash involving one of its autonomous test SUVs in Arizona that killed a pedestrian, the California DMV said in a letter sent to the company on Tuesday.

“Any application for a new permit will need to address any follow-up analysis or investigations from the recent crash in Arizona and may also require a meeting with the department,” said the letter from DMV Deputy Director Brian Soublet.

California is the second state in which Uber won’t be able to test autonomous vehicles on public roads. On Monday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey suspended Uber’s self-driving vehicle testing privileges due to the crash.

On the night of March 18 an Uber autonomous Volvo SUV struck and killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was walking a bicycle across a darkened boulevard in Tempe, near Phoenix. Experts have told The Associated Press that the SUV’s laser and radar sensors should have spotted Herzberg, and the vehicle should have stopped. In addition, the SUV’s human backup driver appeared to be looking down before the crash and had a stunned look when it happened, according to dash camera video released by police.

Immediately after the crash, Uber voluntarily suspended its autonomous vehicle testing in Arizona, as well as California, Pittsburgh and Toronto. The company said in a statement that it decided not to reapply for the California permit “with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate in the state in the immediate future.”

California is a relatively small testing ground for Uber with 29 vehicles permitted for testing. The company has about 200 vehicles at all four testing locations.

Uber is still allowed to test on public roads in Pennsylvania and Ontario. Pennsylvania said in a statement that it will work with Uber to “ensure any restart of testing is done with safety as the top priority.” Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation said it is watching developments in Arizona and will consider appropriate measure when more is known.

The Uber crash is being investigated by Tempe police, as well as the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

It has caused angst across the tech and auto businesses, with companies such as Toyota and NVIDIA suspending their autonomous vehicle tests on public roads. NVIDIA’s fleet is small in California.

John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo, which is Google’s self-driving car unit, has expressed confidence in his company’s system and its ability to interact with pedestrians.

Mobileye, an Israeli unit of Intel that makes software brains that interpret what sensors are seeing, has called for the industry to discuss a framework to validate the safety of autonomous vehicles. </s> By TOM KRISHER | The Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — Uber has decided to stop testing autonomous vehicles on California public roads by letting its state permit expire on Saturday without renewing it.

If the ride-hailing service wants to return to the state, it will have to get a new permit and address any investigations into a crash involving one of its autonomous test SUVs in Arizona that killed a pedestrian, the California DMV said in a letter sent to the company on Tuesday.

“Any application for a new permit will need to address any follow-up analysis or investigations from the recent crash in Arizona and may also require a meeting with the department,” said the letter from DMV Deputy Director Brian Soublet.

California is the second state in which Uber won’t be able to test autonomous vehicles on public roads. On Monday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey suspended Uber’s self-driving vehicle testing privileges due to the crash.

On the night of March 18 an Uber autonomous Volvo SUV struck and killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was walking a bicycle across a darkened boulevard in Tempe, near Phoenix. Experts have told The Associated Press that the SUV’s laser and radar sensors should have spotted Herzberg, and the vehicle should have stopped. In addition, the SUV’s human backup driver appeared to be looking down before the crash and had a stunned look when it happened, according to dash camera video released by police.

 Immediately after the crash, Uber voluntarily suspended its autonomous vehicle testing in Arizona, as well as California, Pittsburgh and Toronto. The company said in a statement that it decided not to reapply for the California permit “with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate in the state in the immediate future.”

California is a relatively small testing ground for Uber with 29 vehicles permitted for testing. The company has about 200 vehicles at all four testing locations.

Uber is still allowed to test on public roads in Pennsylvania and Ontario. Pennsylvania said in a statement that it will work with Uber to “ensure any restart of testing is done with safety as the top priority.” Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation said it is watching developments in Arizona and will consider appropriate measure when more is known.

The Uber crash is being investigated by Tempe police, as well as the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

It has caused angst across the tech and auto businesses, with companies such as Toyota and NVIDIA suspending their autonomous vehicle tests on public roads. NVIDIA’s fleet is small in California.

John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo, formerly Google’s self-driving car unit, has expressed confidence in his company’s system and its ability to interact with pedestrians.

Mobileye, an Israeli unit of Intel that makes software brains that interpret what sensors are seeing, has called for the industry to discuss a framework to validate the safety of autonomous vehicles. </s> TEMPE, Ariz. (Reuters) - The family of the woman killed by an Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] self-driving vehicle in Arizona has reached a settlement with the ride services company, ending a potential legal battle over the first fatality caused by an autonomous vehicle.

Cristina Perez Hesano, attorney with the firm of Bellah Perez in Glendale, Arizona, said “the matter has been resolved” between Uber and daughter and husband of Elaine Herzberg, 49, who died after being hit by an Uber self-driving SUV in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe earlier this month.

Terms of the settlement were not given. The law firm representing them said that Herzberg’s daughter and husband, whose names were not disclosed, will have no further comment on the matter as they consider it resolved.

Fall-out from the accident could stall the development and testing of self-driving vehicles, which are designed to eventually perform far better than human drivers and sharply reduce the number of motor vehicle fatalities that occur each year.

Uber has suspended its testing in the wake of the incident. Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and chipmaker Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) have also suspended self-driving car testing on public roads, as they and other companies await the results of an ongoing investigation into the Tempe incident, which is believed to be the first death of a pedestrian struck by a self-driving vehicle.

Uber does not use the self-driving platform architecture of Nvidia, the chipmaker’s Chief Executive Jensen Huang said on Wednesday.

The March 18 fatality near downtown Tempe also presents an unprecedented liability challenge because self-driving vehicles, which are still in the development stage, involve a complex system of hardware and software often made by outside suppliers.

Herzberg was was walking her bicycle outside the crosswalk on a four-lane road when she was struck. A video taken from a dash-mounted camera inside the vehicle that was released by Tempe police showed the SUV traveling along a dark street when suddenly the headlights illuminated Herzberg in front of the SUV.

Other footage showed the human driver who was behind the wheel mostly looking down and not at the road in the seconds before the accident.
U.S. graphics processing unit producer Nvidia suspends all its tests of self-driving cars.