While Uber brought us on-demand taxi rides at the press of a button, Sony wants to use AI to further improve on the model. By studying conditions such as traffic, weather, and current events — taxis can be dispatched automatically where needed.

One example, which many of us will have experienced, is the frustration of getting transport home after a concert. Sony’s algorithm would ensure a fleet of taxis are ready to pick up a surge of attendees exiting the event. More taxis could be dispatched if the weather conditions are poor and people are less likely to walk and use alternative transport such as buses.

Sony is currently focusing on its native market of Japan for the initial release; with no word of plans to release elsewhere. Japan has a ban on the use of private vehicles for ridesharing which enables Sony to gain a foothold in a market with little competition.

However, the company will have to move fast. Automotive giant Toyota is also looking for a slice of the market and poured $70 million into JapanTaxi, another company which is working on an AI-powered taxi system.

The taxi companies involved in Sony’s alliance includes Checker Cab, Daiwa Motor Transportation, Green Cab, Hinomaru Kotsu, and Kokusai Motorcars.

As self-driving cars grow in prominence, AI hailing systems like what Sony is developing will become invaluable. The company has a chance at becoming a leader in what’s set to become a very lucrative market.

What are your thoughts on Sony developing an AI-powered taxi system?

The post Sony is working on an AI-powered taxi system appeared first on AI News.

Xavier is designed to power the NVIDIA DRIVE software stack which has been expanded to a trio of AI platforms covering every aspect of the experience inside next-generation automobiles.

DRIVE AV — This part of the DRIVE platform was also available in the previous generation and uses neural networks to perform the calculations required for self-driving cars.

DRIVE IX — The first of the two new inclusions is a software development kit which enables AI assistants that can harness data from sensors inside and outside the vehicle.

DRIVE AR — While there have been many advancements around self-driving technologies and AI assistants for cars, augmented reality is still relatively unexplored. With DRIVE AR, Nvidia intends to enable new graphical experiences which can deliver things such as information about points of interest along the route.

The processor has been in development for over four years and represents the work of over 2,000 engineers. Xavier features more than nine billion transistors and Nvidia claims it’s the most complex system-on-a-chip (SoC) ever created.

Autonomous vehicles require data to be captured and processed at very fast rates. To help achieve this, Xavier is built around a custom 8-core CPU. The processor also includes a new 512-core Volta GPU, deep learning accelerator, new computer vision accelerators, and 8K HDR video processors.

These features come together to calculate 30 trillion operations per second while consuming just 30 watts. Nvidia claims this generation of its DRIVE platform is 15 times more energy efficient than its previous.

Nvidia Pegasus is the company’s supercomputer for self-driving cars. It uses two Xavier SoCs in tandem with two next-generation GPUs to deliver 320 trillion operations per second of performance.

Customers are due to receive their first samples of Pegasus in mid-2018.

What are your thoughts on Nvidia’s new Xavier SoC?

The post Nvidia seeks pole position in AI for connected cars with DRIVE Xavier SoC appeared first on AI News.