Uber has selected NVIDIA’s technology for the AI computing system in its self-driving vehicle fleet to improve operations.

Installed in the Uber Advanced Technologies Group’s fleets of self-driving cars and freight trucks, the technology will enable the vehicles to perceive the world, predict future events and accordingly choose the ideal action based on real-time situations.

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang said: “The future of transportation will be transformed by mobility services. Convenient, affordable mobility-as-a-service will reshape cities and society, and help support the billion-person increase in the world’s population over the next decade.

“Autonomous vehicles are the critical technology to making mobility services pervasive.”

Uber, which started working on self-driving technology in early 2015, initially launched the city trials in Pittsburgh in 2016.

A second pilot was lunched in Phoenix starting early last year.

“NVIDIA is a key technology provider to Uber as we bring scalable self-driving cars and trucks to market.”

Over this period, the company’s self-driving vehicles have completed more than 50,000 passenger trips and have logged more than two million autonomous miles.

Uber Advanced Technologies Group head Eric Meyhofer said: “Developing safe, reliable autonomous vehicles requires sophisticated AI software and a high-performance GPU computing engine in the vehicle.

“NVIDIA is a key technology provider to Uber as we bring scalable self-driving cars and trucks to market.”

Uber’s use of NVIDIA’s technology highlights the importance of computational requirements in self-driving vehicle operations.

Self-driving cars and trucks need a high-resolution, 360° surround cameras and lidars. They should have the ability to detect and track other vehicles and people and localise the vehicle within the closest possible accuracy to ensure safe operations.

Uber currently also uses high-performance NVIDIA processors to run deep neural networks for its self-driving ride-hailing cars and self-driving freight trucks.