The autonomous driving industry is shaped by rapid technological advancements and the need for standardization of guidelines to ensure the safety of both autonomous vehicles (AVs) and their interaction with human-driven vehicles.
At the NVIDIA AI Summit this week in Washington, D.C., industry experts shared viewpoints on this AV safety landscape from regulatory and technology perspectives.
Danny Shapiro, vice president of automotive at NVIDIA, led the wide-ranging conversation with Mark Rosekind, former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Marco Pavone, director of AV research at NVIDIA.
To frame the discussion, Shapiro kicked off with a sobering comment about the high number of crashes, injuries and fatalities on the world's roadways. Human error remains a serious problem and the primary cause of these incidents.
Improving safety on our roads is critical, Shapiro said, noting that NVIDIA has been working for over two decades with the auto industry, including advanced driver assistance systems and fully autonomous driving technology development.
NVIDIA's approach to AV development is centered on the integration of three computers: one for training the AI, one for simulation to test and validate the AI, and one in the vehicle to process sensor data in real time to make safe driving decisions. Together, these systems enable continuous development cycles, always improving the AV software in performance and safety.
Rosekind, a highly regarded automotive safety expert, spoke about the patchwork of regulations that exists across the U.S., explaining that federal agencies focus on the vehicle, while the states focus on the operator, including driver education, insurance and licensing.
Pavone commented on the emergence of new tools that allow researchers and developers to rethink how AV development is carried out, as a result of the explosion of new technologies related to generative AI and neural rendering, among others.
These technologies are enabling new developments in simulation, for example to generate complex scenarios aimed at stress testing vehicles for safety purposes. And they're harnessing foundation models, such as vision language models, to allow developers to build more robust autonomy software, Pavone said.
One of the relevant and timely topics discussed during the panel was an announcement made during the AI Summit by MITRE, a government-sponsored nonprofit research organization.
MITRE announced its partnership with Mcity at the University of Michigan to develop a virtual and physical AV validation platform for industry deployment.
MITRE will use Mcity's simulation tools and a digital twin of its Mcity Test Facility, a real-world AV test environment in its digital proving ground. The jointly developed platform will deliver physically based sensor simulation enabled by NVIDIA Omniverse Cloud Sensor RTX applications programming interfaces.
By combining these simulation capabilities with the MITRE digital proving ground reporting and analysis framework, developers will be able to perform exhaustive testing in a simulated world to safely validate AVs before real-world deployment.
Rosekind commented: The MITRE announcement represents an opportunity to have a trusted source who's done this in many other areas, especially in aviation, to create an independent, neutral setting to test safety assurance.
One of the most exciting things about this endeavor is that simulation is going to have a key role, added Pavone. Simulation allows you to test very dangerous conditions in a repeatable and varied way, so you can simulate different cases at scale.
That's the beauty of simulation, said Shapiro. It's repeatable, it's controllable. We can control the weather in the simulation. We can change the time of day, and then we can control all the scenarios and inject hazards. Once the simulation is created, we can run it over and over, and as the software develops, we can ensure we are solving the problem, and can fine-tune as necessary.
The panel wrapped up with a reminder that the key goal of autonomous driving is one that businesses and regulators alike share: to reduce death and injuries on our roadways.
Watch a replay of the session. To learn more about NVIDIA's commitment to bringing safety to our roads, read the NVIDIA Self-Driving Safety Report.
North America Stories
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Designed for synchronized multi-stream playback, low-latency delivery, and real-time analytics, MATCH introduces a unified viewing experience for sports broadca...
07/04/2026
Berklee Students to Honor George Martin with Performance of Original Scores The orchestra, led by associate professor Xander Rovang, will perform several work...
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...
06/04/2026
April 6th, 2026
TRIBECA STUDIOS AND LILLY ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF INAUGURAL VITAL...
06/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...
04/04/2026
The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...
04/04/2026
1080p HDR arrives, a new generation of storytelling tools takes center stage, an...
04/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
DHD Introduces AI-Based Audio Noise Reduction to XD3 IP Core
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
The accompanying image shows the rear panel of the ...
04/04/2026
Macnica Redefines ST 2110 Flexibility with Two Speeds on One Card
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB Show 2026, MEP100 SmartNIC now sup...
04/04/2026
Unified Media Workflows for Story-Centric Production
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
Framelight X unifies field capture, editing and publishing ...
03/04/2026
Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...
03/04/2026
Avid will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (April 18-22, Booth N2226, Las Vegas Convention Center), demonstrating its Content Core platform and new AI-driven workflow c...
03/04/2026
Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has announced the appointment of Nick Barthee as Chief Operating Officer.
The announcement follows MRMC's transition fro...
03/04/2026
Interra Systems has announced that Elite Media Technologies has selected its BATON file-based QC solution for media workflows. Elite Media Technologies speciali...
03/04/2026
Ateme has announced that Moldtelecom has deployed Ateme technologies across its streaming workflow, covering encoding, delivery, operations, and analytics.
Mol...
03/04/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate Framelight X, its content management platform, at NAB Show 2026. The platform connects capture, ingest, editing, and publishing in...
03/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media and Techex have announced a cloud-native Master Control ...
03/04/2026
Live Vertical Video automatically track the action on the court via AI technology and delivers a fully optimized, 9 16 live feed for viewers...
03/04/2026
As the Illini make their first trip to college basketball's biggest stage si...
03/04/2026
After last summer's Softball National Championship victory and last week'...
03/04/2026
The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...
03/04/2026
Eight games across four tournaments will be played in three venues; accommodatio...
The autonomous driving industry is shaped by rapid technological advancements and the need for standardization of guidelines to ensure the safety of both autonomous vehicles (AVs) and their interaction with human-driven vehicles.
