The massive growth in computing power and data science coupled with diminishing infrastructure costs is disrupting the traditional methods of innovation in the automotive industry. The Autotech Council — created to enable better innovation in the auto industry get to market faster — is helping bridge the gap between disruptive technology startups and car-makers from around the world.

“We have gathered some of the industry’s largest OEM [original equipment manufacturer] car-makers you know of, like Ford, Toyota, Renault and others. They have offices in the Silicon Valley and their job is to find that Silicon Valley spark and take it back into cars,” said Derek Kerton (pictured, right), founder and chairman of the Autotech Council.

Kerton spoke with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during this year’s Auto Tech Council – Innovation in Motion event in Milpitas, California. (* Disclosure below.)

How a self-driving car senses the world

This year’s Innovation in Motion event centered around advancements in high-definition mapping and sensor technology advancements in self-driving vehicles, which has an entirely new set of needs compared to traditional human-based navigation.

“The idea is getting incredibly granular, high-detail maps that we can push into a car so that it has that reference into the 3-D world that’s extremely accurate. The next problem is then keeping those maps up to date,” Kerton said.

The solution is not dependent upon a single technology, but a combination of different platforms and services that together enable a truly self-driving experience.

“It’s a mix of high-level maps you’ve got in the car and what the sensors are telling you in real time,” Kerton stated. He also described the forces behind the two different approaches in sensing real-time optical data: lidar (light detection and ranging) and cameras.

“Lidar is the gold standard for precision; the problem is it’s also really expensive. Car makers can’t put four $8,000 sensors and get it to market. … Camera’s are also cheap and readily available, and a company like Nvidia has very fast GPUs able to suck in data from up to 12 cameras at a time. With those different stereoscopic views, you can build 3-D models from cheap cameras,” Kerton said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Auto Tech Council – Innovation in Motion. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Auto Tech Council – Innovation in Motion. Neither Western Digital Corp., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE