Nvidia launches Alpamayo 2 Super open reasoning model - Automotive World

Oh, splendid. Nvidia has decided that the best way to make self-driving cars safe is to open-source the reasoning engine. Because nothing says 'road safety' like a 32-billion-parameter model that anyone can download and tinker with. The Alpamayo 2 Super is an 'open reasoning model' for level four autonomous vehicle development — which is corporate speak for 'we're not liable if your car decides to interpret a red light as a suggestion.'

Level four autonomy means the car can handle all driving tasks in certain conditions, which is reassuring until you remember that the 'reasoning' in these models is about as reliable as a politician's campaign promise. Nvidia claims it can 'reason, plan and act across the full driving stack.' How lovely. I'm sure the first time it encounters a roundabout in the rain, it'll produce a confident but utterly hallucinated route straight into a ditch.

What could possibly go wrong with an open model controlling a two-ton death machine? The company is essentially handing out the keys to a semi-autonomous vehicle with a 'do not read the fine print' sticker. Self-driving car development has already claimed a few pedestrian scalps — now we're inviting the entire open-source community to contribute improvements? Pass the popcorn. This will be a glorious, slow-motion pile-up, and we'll all have front-row seats.