As digital transformation continues to sweep the market, an increasing number of companies are turning to machine learning and automation for more efficient solutions. The surge of data generated by these new technologies is enabling more educated business decisions across a range of industries, but those that require immediate and absolute accuracy, such as automated vehicles, are facing unique challenges in streamlined data processing.

“Autonomous vehicles are being made possible by the immense amount of sensors that are being put into the car,” said Christopher Bergey (pictured), senior vice president of devices product marketing and management at Western Digital Corp. “Those sensors drive a tremendous amount of data, and then it’s really about trying to pull the intelligence out of that data … in a very short period of time.”

Bergey spoke with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at the Autotech Council Autonomous Vehicles event in Milpitas, California. They discussed the importance of data efficiency in autonomous vehicles and how that information is being used to improve the scaling tech. (* Disclosure below.)

Interpreting data volume through context

The amount of data generated by autonomous cars is cumbersome for those trying to parse out its utility. Transferring the information actually requires FedEx delivery of terabyte drives, according to Bergey. To make use of its volume efficiently, data scientists must focus on the context and pull the intelligence out of the data presented.

“[The] sensors are seeing something. ‘Hey, that’s a person; that’s a deer; that’s a car moving alongside of us.’ Those are the types of decisions we’re making with this data, and that’s the context,” Bergey said.

With the new granularity afforded by machine learning, Bergey and his team are discovering greater opportunities to leverage autonomous vehicle sensor data, and determining how to incorporate this level of detail into an already-saturated process.

“We could have pulled out more of these trends or more of these corner cases. I think that’s one of the challenges enterprises are going through right now is that everyone’s so scared of getting rid of any data, yet there’s just tremendous data growth,” he stated.

Data accuracy is of the utmost importance, especially in automotive technology, where physical safety is constantly at risk. “We’re dealing with human life, I mean, obviously it needs to be right 99.999 plus percent,” Bergey said.

To ensure welfare in the present and innovation into the future, Western Digital is constantly looking to improve how it works with autonomous vehicle data. “Making real-time decisions but then also learning how to use that decision to make better decisions in the future. That’s really where Silicon Valley is focused right now,” he concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Autotech Council Autonomous Vehicles event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Autotech Council Autonomous Vehicles event. Neither Western Digital Corp., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE