{"id":230,"date":"2020-09-15T20:17:11","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T20:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/machine-learning.webcloning.com\/2020\/09\/15\/more-space-less-jam-transportation-agency-uses-nvidia-drive-for-federal-highway-pilot\/"},"modified":"2020-09-15T20:17:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-15T20:17:11","slug":"more-space-less-jam-transportation-agency-uses-nvidia-drive-for-federal-highway-pilot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/machine-learning\/2020\/09\/15\/more-space-less-jam-transportation-agency-uses-nvidia-drive-for-federal-highway-pilot\/","title":{"rendered":"More Space, Less Jam: Transportation Agency Uses NVIDIA DRIVE for Federal Highway Pilot"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It could be just a fender bender or an unforeseen rain shower, but a few seconds of disruption can translate to extra minutes or even hours of mind-numbing highway traffic.<\/p>\n

But how much of this congestion could be avoided with AI at the wheel?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the Contra Costa Transportation Authority is working to determine in one of three federally funded automated driving system pilots in the next few years. Using vehicles retrofitted with the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Pegasus platform<\/a>, the agency will estimate just how much intelligent transportation can improve the efficiency of everyday commutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the population grows, there are more demands on roadways and continuing to widen them is just not sustainable,\u201d said Randy Iwasaki, executive director of the CCTA. \u201cWe need to find better ways to move people, and autonomous vehicle technology is one way to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CCTA was one of eight awardees \u2013 and the only local agency \u2013 of the Automated Driving System Demonstration Grants Program<\/a> from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which aims to test the safe integration of self-driving cars into U.S. roads.<\/p>\n

The Bay Area agency is using the funds for the highway pilot, as well as two other projects to develop robotaxis equipped with self-docking wheelchair technology and test autonomous shuttles for a local retirement community.<\/p>\n

A More Intelligent Interstate<\/b><\/h2>\n

From the 101 to the 405, California is known for its constantly congested highways. In Contra Costa, Interstate 680 is one of those high-traffic corridors, funneling many of the area\u2019s 120,000 daily commuters. This pilot will explore how the Highway Capacity Manual \u2013 which sets assumptions for modeling freeway capacity \u2013 can be updated to incorporate future automated vehicle technology.<\/p>\n

Iwasaki estimates that half of California\u2019s congestion is recurrent, meaning demand for roadways is higher than supply.\u00a0 The other half is non-recurrent and can be attributed to things like weather events, special events \u2014 such as concerts or parades \u2014 and accidents. By eliminating human driver error, which has been estimated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to be the cause of 94 percent of traffic accidents<\/a>, the system becomes more efficient and reliable.<\/p>\n

Autonomous vehicles don\u2019t get distracted or drowsy, which are two of the biggest causes of human error while driving. They also use redundant and diverse sensors as well as high-definition maps to detect and plan the road ahead much farther than a human driver can.<\/p>\n

These attributes make it easier to maintain constant speeds as well as space for vehicles to merge in and out of traffic for a smoother daily commute.<\/p>\n

Driving Confidence<\/b><\/h2>\n

The CCTA will be using a fleet of autonomous test vehicles retrofitted with sensors and NVIDIA DRIVE AGX to gauge how much this technology can improve highway capacity.<\/p>\n

The NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Pegasus AI compute platform uses the power of two Xavier systems-on-a-chip and two NVIDIA Turing architecture GPUs to achieve an unprecedented 320 trillion operations per second of supercomputing performance. The platform is designed and built for Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous systems, including robotaxis.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Pegasus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Iwasaki said the agency tapped NVIDIA for this pilot because the company\u2019s vision matches its own: to solve real problems that haven\u2019t been solved before, using proactive safety measures every step of the way.<\/p>\n

With half of adult drivers<\/a> reporting they\u2019re fearful of self-driving technology, this approach to autonomous vehicles is critical to gaining public acceptance, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get the word out that this technology is safer and let them know who\u2019s behind making sure it\u2019s safer,\u201d Iwasaki said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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