While Nvidia is most well known for its graphics cards, they also manufactures chips for autonomous vehicles (AV).
The firm supplies chips to – among others – Uber, which is currently dealing with the fallout from an accident last week in which one of its AVs collided with and killed a pedestrian.
Now Recode reports that Nvidia has suspended all of its self driving tests in an effort to learn more about the incident.
“It’s a reminder of how difficult SDC [self-driving car] technology is and that it needs to be approached with extreme caution and the best safety technologies,” Nvidia spokesperson Fazel Adabi told Recode while reflecting on how tragic the incident was.
Nvidia is not the only ones to voluntarily halt testing of AVs. Toyota and software company nuTonomy have also reportedly suspended testing temporarily.
While Uber did suspend its testing at first, Arizona governor Douglas Ducey issued a suspension of Uber’s permission to test its AVs on public roads in the state.
“Improving public safety has always been the emphasis of Arizona’s approach to autonomous vehicle testing and my expectation is that public safety is also the top priority for all who operate this technology in the state of Arizona,” said Ducey.
Meanwhile Waymo (which is incidentally locked in a legal battle with Uber regarding AV tech) CEO believes that its tech could have prevented the accident from happening.
“We have a lot of confidence that our technology would be robust and would be able to handle situations like that one,” John Krafcik said while speaking at the National Automobile Dealership Association Conference.
Investigations into the Uber incident last week are still under way.
