Wednesday, March 28th 2018
NVIDIA Temporarily Halts Self-Driving Tests in Wake of Recent Crashes
(UPDATE 29MAR2018, 14H34): It has been confirmed that the UBER vehicle that suffered the crash in Arizona, mentioned in this news piece, was indeed running NVIDIA hardware. However, this hardware capability was apparently acquired via of-the-shelf acquisitions by UBER, and didn't employ NVIDIA's DRIVE platform. The autonomous driving capabilities of the UBER vehicle were instead handled by NVIDIA hardware, handled fully via UBER's own, proprietary software stack. NVIDIA, thus, is looking to distance itself from the even as much as possible when it comes to its DRIVE platform, so as to avoid any unwarranted bad press upon the system on which they pin such high hopes for the market.
Even though NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang has been delivering keynotes at this year's GDC that mainly focus on AI-driven workloads and system training, the company has decided to put a temporary stop to self-driving tests using its technology. This decision comes in the wake of the UBER crash, which killed a woman in Arizona just last week. To add some more heat to the mixture, it has just been announced that the NTSB is opening an investigation towards the accident involving a Tesla motor vehicle (although at the time, it isn't known whether the car was in self-driving mode or not).
As a result of these events, which saw Tesla and Uber's stock valuation decline, NVIDIA has decided to halt all self-driving tests using its integrated NVIDIA DRIVE platform. Some 370 interested parties - from developers to companies - are currently exploring self-driving solutions, and this decision is sure to put a stop to their work. However, it does have to be said that if anything, these events contribute to the notion that these systems aren't as of yet ready for deployment - should the fault lie completely with the automated driving mechanisms, of course. Let's not forget that human drivers make mistakes - and sometimes do exactly as intended - that also kill human beings in a much, much more expressive way.
Sources:
Yahoo Finance, Reuters
Even though NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang has been delivering keynotes at this year's GDC that mainly focus on AI-driven workloads and system training, the company has decided to put a temporary stop to self-driving tests using its technology. This decision comes in the wake of the UBER crash, which killed a woman in Arizona just last week. To add some more heat to the mixture, it has just been announced that the NTSB is opening an investigation towards the accident involving a Tesla motor vehicle (although at the time, it isn't known whether the car was in self-driving mode or not).
23 Comments on NVIDIA Temporarily Halts Self-Driving Tests in Wake of Recent Crashes
Being driven in one those believing you'll intervene it a cray job. While that video of the driver appears they where looking down totally un-aware (texting...). Even if you are watching and thinking about taking control, you have to think is the system going to do the right thing, if I intervene to quickly will the designers say oh they should have let the system do it... as it would've? Or, while thinking about "all that" in a split second will end up still in some accident.
It could mess you up for life... thinking you kill someone, at least that person can rest assure as they never had a chance of considering any of those options.
Granted, a human was driving the robot in my fathers instance. But the idea and concept remains the same. They have uses in the roles you specified.
and please judge human abilities correcty - in this situation (because of visibility and the fact that pedestrian just walks in front of moving car, like it did not exist) any human would have also "killed" that pedestrian.
It is very sad that we live in age where everyone (and there fore Mainstreammedia) can get triggered by event without knowing any facts about it (and at this point - not even trying to know or analyze any facts) and because of mass triggering - progress can be stopped and more human lives can be lost in future (dont tell me that humans do not or will not cause fatalities in traffic - on average 35 000 deaths in US alone per year)
0:33-035 would be the area where she was hit
Here is another video of the accident area 0:33-0:35
Bloomberg: Human Driver Could Have Avoided Fatal Uber Crash, Experts Say
While I should not joke around when someone actually died. But this reminds me Volvo's automatic brake test failure in the past(Yeah I know this has nothing to do car maker this time):
www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/tempe/watch-tempe-police-release-video-of-deadly-uber-crash
As to the "system" it for whatever the reason never saw or judged that obstacle, and there's no reason all those sensors and such should've ever missed... yes that stupid person. I'm not saying a driver clearly focused on the task of driving would've not hit that person walking a bike, but at least "I" in all probability been able to brake and steer away, that "system" did no evasive maneuver.
The technology/system has a flaw or broke down. The technology has been sold to everyone that the odds of such an instance like this as next to non-existent. Like an individual being hit by a meteorite.
I would say it's not.
The drivers cabin cam shows greater detail of the street if you look out the driver side window. You can see the bushes not just this area in detail but throughout the entire interior video.
Ars technica: Police chief said Uber victim “came from the shadows”—don’t believe it
More than a thousand people day by traffic accidents caused by HUMAN ERROR, by that logic no one should ever drive?
But it's only sensible for all parties involved in the development of such technology to take a step back... including Nvidia despite the fact their drive technology wasn't used.
Let's just be thankful she wasn't Sarah Connor.
We are are ALL pedestrians!! When you are in a car, driving, it is a responsibility, RESPONSIBILITY, to not kill Pedestrians, or other Motorists or any Bicyclists or Biker's !!
I don't think self driving cars should be allowed to drive unattended, in ANY METRO AREA! Road tripping through Kansas? Hand me another Beer! LOL!
Letting a computer drive you in the city means, to me, you have no consideration for anyone else, at all. I have seen pedestrians do some stupid shit, (cross the street in front of a train, anyone?) but I have seen WAY more automotive driver's do stupid shit!! I think I would trust a drunk to walk to the store and back. But not some of the people I have seen driving!
So, be sober, behind the wheel. Be courteous, be attentive and don't weaponize your vehicle!
:lovetpu:
I use a bike to go to work everyday, regardless of weather conditions, and i always use a reflective piece of clothing. Yesterday i wore two because it was raining, so i had to also use the lower part of my reflective gear: I wan't to be clearly seen when going to / from work.
That said, i've seen the video posted by @Xzibit and i'm not entirely convinced a human driver could have avoided that pedestrian because you only see her when you're almost hitting her: perhaps a swerve could have avoided hitting her full on but, judging by the onboard camera footage, there's very little time between when she's seen and when she's hit.
According to those that speak in this video, Lidar should have picked up the presence of the pedestrian, regardless of lighting conditions, long before a human driver could, so i'm guessing something definitely didn't work as it should.
2 + 2 = 4, er, 4.1, no, 4.3... Nvidia's Titan V GPUs spit out 'wrong answers' in scientific simulationsFrankly, ,I didn't even need to see other pictures to call bullshit.
Victim crossed 2 lanes, slowly.
It doesn't matter if road was illuminated or not, car's lights are more than adequate to see the pedestrian from a distance far enough to stop.Because their system failed miserably in an very ordinary situation.That's caused by hundreds of millions of people driving.
If we would let Uber's piece of shit in those numbers, we'd likely see even more victims.
Also as I started with the first post, having humans sitting behind the wheel waiting for the unexpected and then loosing milliseconds while thinking, " is the car going do what it's suppose to, or should do something... or, will the engineers who have me sitting here reprimand me for doing something... or not doing?
My son had his first accident and he's shaken... it was bad. He intends he was not distracted (which he's not like that, but sure parents can never be positive), luckily no one was severely hurt. Though a non-focused second leads to a bad deal, so yes human's are very fallible. He's hard on himself now, he'll have to get over it and get back behind the wheel.
What I start here... was tabling the idea that they put humans to "over-watch" these cars like that lady was doing... is one hell of a job! Lets face it not any of those folk in that job (Uber) are top notch engineering type's just riding around at night.