Do Driverless Cars Really Need Edge Computing?

Along with virtual and augmented reality and the Internet of Things, self-driving cars have been one of tech experts' go-to applications when explaining the utility of edge computing. Until not too long ago, Dean Nelson, who just left his job as head of computing infrastructure at Uber, also assumed autonomous vehicles, which can generate tens of terabytes of data per day, would shuffle much of that data to and from servers in their vicinity, relying on the processing power at the edge (and ultra-fast wireless networks) to augment their onboard computing muscle. But, after spending a few years up close and personal with the technology infrastructure that powers one of the front-running companies in the race to make driverless cars viable, he's no longer sure edge computing will play a big role. "In the last couple years I changed my mind with autonomous vehicles," Nelson said Thursday while sitting on a panel at DCD San Francisco, a data center industry conference. Earlier that day, he had announced in post on LinkedIn that he was leaving Uber to start his own consultancy and devote more time to family and the activities of Infrastructure Masons, the industry group for data center professionals he founded in 2016.