National Instruments will be hosting their annual customer conference and partner showcase, NIWeek 2019, this year from May 20-23 at the Austin Convention Center. NIWeek draws engineers from across the transportation, aerospace, medical device industries and many others. There are also  a fair number of members of the academic community rounding out the crowd. It is a hub of activity for Viviota customers and partners and a busy time for our team. We were delighted to find out in January that Viviota will be presenting two of the conference technical sessions:

"What we've got here is a failure to communicate." In the 1967 Paul Newman movie classic Cool Hand Luke, that memorable line is uttered by the character "Captain" (head of the chain gang) to justify beating Cool Hand Luke, played by Newman. Captain of Road Prison 36 has just told Luke that he is wearing chains for his good—to which the prisoner cleverly responds, "Wish you'd stop bein' so good to me, Cap'n." 

The automotive industry is working toward a revolutionary event, a truly autonomous vehicle—one in which a human driver is no longer required. To accomplish this, automotive companies have focused R&D teams, whose mission is evolving and growing onboard automated safety systems. Today onboard safety systems include features such as airbags and anti-lock brakes. For autonomous driving to become a reality, more dynamic safety systems are needed, for example collision detection/avoidance, and smart cruise control with vehicle-controlled lane changing.

Self-driving cars offer a safe, efficient and cost-effective solution that will dramatically redefine the future of human mobility.