Testing autonomous vehicles in simulations becomes a reality

Jensen Huang, CEO and founder of NVIDIA, introduces the simulation platform during his keynote at GTC. In the background are some of the drive scenarios that could be tested.

The NVIDIA DRIVE Constellation autonomous vehicle simulation platform is now available.

The cloud-based platform enables millions of miles to be driven virtually across a range of scenarios — from routine driving to rare and dangerous situations — with more efficiency, cost-effectiveness and safety than possible in the real world. This large-scale validation capability is comparable to operating an entire fleet of test vehicles, but one that is able to accomplish years of testing in a fraction of the time.

First introduced at GTC last year, DRIVE Constellation is a data centre solution comprised of two

side-by-side servers. One server — DRIVE Constellation Simulator — uses NVIDIA GPUs running

DRIVE Sim software to generate the sensor output from the virtual car driving in a virtual

world. The other server — DRIVE Constellation Vehicle — contains the DRIVE AGX Pegasus AI

car computer, which processes the simulated sensor data.

The driving decisions from DRIVE Constellation Vehicle are fed back into DRIVE Constellation

Simulator, enabling bit-accurate, timing-accurate hardware-in-the-loop testing.

NVIDIA predicts that simulation will become a key component for third-party and regulatory autonomous vehicle standards. Safety agencies such as TÜV SÜD are already using the platform to formulate their self-driving validation standards, it said.

“TÜV SÜD is looking for simulation tools that are trustworthy, robust and scalable for the

approval of autonomous vehicles,” said Houssem Abdellatif, global head of Autonomous Driving

and ADAS at TÜV SÜD. “NVIDIA DRIVE Constellation provides a powerful and highly scalable

solution to achieve this goal.”

NVIDIA separately announced that Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD) is the first customer of DRIVE Constellation. “We believe large-scale simulation tools for software

validation and testing are critical for automated driving systems,” said Dr James Kuffner, CEO of

TRI-AD.

On stage at GTC, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang demonstrated the DRIVE Constellation platform seamlessly performing driving tests in the cloud. Developers anywhere in the world can submit simulation scenarios to DRIVE Constellation data centres and evaluate the results from their desks.

DRIVE Constellation is an open platform into which ecosystem partners can integrate their

environment models, vehicle models, sensor models and traffic scenarios. By incorporating

datasets from the broader simulation ecosystem, the platform can generate comprehensive,

diverse and complex testing environments.

To this end, Cognata, a simulation company, announced today that its scenario and traffic model

can be supported on DRIVE Constellation. With Cognata’s traffic models, developers can define

a number of vehicles and other road users as well as their behaviour, based on real-world traffic

behaviour.

“Cognata and NVIDIA are creating a robust solution that will efficiently and safely accelerate

autonomous vehicles’ market entry,” said Danny Atsmon, CEO of Cognata. “Highly accurate and

scalable traffic model simulation technology is essential to validate autonomous vehicle systems

with very large combinations of real-world scenarios.”

IPG Automotive, an automotive simulation company, is another ecosystem partner working with NVIDIA to enable a high-fidelity vehicle models. Its simulation software, CarMaker, is used to create virtual vehicle prototypes, including models of all main vehicle subsystems. Developers can include test vehicle responses to changes in steering, road surface, suspension, powertrain and vehicle control systems.

“Together with the support of our ecosystem partners, we’re making available large-scale,

cloud-based, open simulation that thoroughly and safely validates self-driving cars under

endless challenging situations,” said Zvi Greenstein, GM at NVIDIA.

Hashtag: #GTC19

*NVIDIA sponsored transport and accommodation for GTC.