NVIDIA regarding ISO & Environment​ (by T.

CAPALDI)

Introduction

NVIDIA is a corporation, mainly based on IT products. I was wondering if such

a company cares about the environment or if they only focus on innovation and selling their
products? That’s why I choose to talk about ​NVIDIA and ISO norms related to
environment​. I will also talk about ​quality and ​safety norms. Finally​, I will try to give the
corporation recommendations based on my study regarding that topic.

Researches and Definitions

What is ISO ?

ISO (international organization of standardization) is an organization that develops

and publishes International Standards. Those standards are made ​to certify that
something is safe, reliable and of good quality. It can be applied to everything from the
shoes we stand in, to the Wi-Fi networks that connect us invisibly to each other.

ISO norms for environment

Here, ​I am going to focus on their standards regarding environment​.

The ISO norms regarding environment are all part of ​the ISO 14000
family of standard: “environmental management”. It ​provides tools
for companies and organizations of all kinds looking to manage their
environmental responsibilities. Created in 1996, revisited in 2004 and
again in 2017, those standards are ​rules and tips to limit the impact not
only on the environment but also on health in general.

For a business, being conform to the ISO 14001 (Newest version of ISO 14000) is a way to
certify clients, stakeholders and shareholders that the corporation do care about it
environmental impact. Moreover, ​it’s also an opportunity to distinguish from
competitors.

ISO norms for quality management

Another interesting ISO family is ​9000​, it concerns ​Quality Management Systems.

ISO 9001 ​specifies the basic requirements for a quality management

system that an organization must fulfil to demonstrate its ability to
consistently provide products and services that enhance customer
satisfaction and meet applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. ​ISO
9000 is used by companies ​to become familiar with the fundamental
concepts, principles and normative vocabulary of a quality management system
before adopting ISO 9001.

ISO and Automotive security

As said before, ​Nvidia are extending their activity to Automotives and especially Self
Driving Vehicle (NVIDIA DRIVE, not on the market yet). Because of that initiative, another
ISO norm has been taken into account:​ ISO 26262.

ISO 26262 focuses on Road vehicle and Functional safety.

It is intended to be applied to safety-related systems including
electrical and electronic systems and installed in series
production passenger cars.

To become ISO 26262, a company needs to do ​a ​lot of tests and simulations in order to
verify that every single part of the system is safe. In the case of Self driven cars, even more
things needs to be verified. For that reason, NVIDIA DRIVE provides a holistic safety
platform that includes process, technologies and simulation systems (e.g. virtual reality
simulation).

NVIDIA regarding those norms

“Since 2005, our Silicon Valley operations,
product design, and supply chain functions have
been certified to the ISO 14001”
NVIDIA Sustainability report (2017)

For Nvidia and its CEO J-H Huang, it’s very important to have a good image regarding ethic
and environment. It is also important for them to guarantee safety for their products and
quality in general. This is why they took quality initiative with ISO. Here are some ISO norms
Nvidia is conforming to in different stages of their activity:

● The NVIDIA suppliers that they partner with to manufacture their products are
certified to ​ISO 9001​ (Quality Management System) and​ ISO 14001​ (Environmental
Management).
● The NVIDIA DRIVE architecture enables automakers to build and deploy self-driving
cars and trucks that are functionally safe and can be certified to international safety
standards, such as ​ISO 26262.​ ​“Safety is the most important feature of a self-driving
car. It is imperative that it operates safely, even when things go wrong. NVIDIA’s
investment into this functional safety platform is one of the most important ones
we’ve ever made, and it provides a critical ingredient for automakers to bring
self-driving cars to market.” - Jensen Huang, founder and chief executive officer of
NVIDIA.

Reflection and Recommendations

To get subjective, I personally think this is a good strategy to get conform to as much
ISO norms as possible because ​customers are becoming more and more attentive to
things like ethic manufacture, environment and security. Those are three things ISO
guarantees.

I still believe ISO, like most of the things, got limits. In some cases, history showed that it’s
possible to fake conformity. Just like Wolsvagen did with their engines, any company could
call a product or service “conform to a norm”, “environmental friendly” or whatever as long as
they can falsify the results of tests.

In the case of NVIDIA DRIVE, Nvidia is being contraversed. Arguments are that people don’t
want to let their life in the hands of an artificial intelligence. In my opinion, it’s part of the
challenge. Of course this is a big project and Nvidia is working hard to provide the safest
products. They are already ISO 26262 conform. That norm was made for manual driven cars
in first place and might not cover every aspect of self driven ones but Nvidia is going way
further than that with their holistic safety platform including more and more tests in a wide
range of situations and weather conditions. Interesting facts to reassure the septics:
Airplanes nowaday are almost entirely self driven, pilots are taking care of the takeover and
landing but the rest is mostly done by computers. Also Artificial Intelligence have been
proven to be more efficient (in reactivity, observation etc.) than humans in lots of
experiments.

Finally, ​my recommendation to Nvidia would be to ​keep going this way with ISO norms​,
but also to try to ​surpass it and go further​. For example, ​regarding ethic and
environment​, they could try to ​be more careful about where do their materials come
from​. I learned most of Lithium batteries are using cobalt, digged by exploited children in
Africa. To this problem, there might be an alternative to find, as well as to ​what happens to
their equipment when its no longer working? Can it be recycled? Repaired? Those
questions need to be answered by Nvidia in order to tell the client what to do with their dead
devices. ​Regarding NVIDIA DRIVE and security​, I think ​they don’t underrate the amount
of tests needed for such a product. I’m personally not septic about this project, I can’t wait
to get myself a car that can bring me back home after parties when my condition doesn’t
make me able to drive.

Conclusion

To conclude, ​Nvidia (as a company) is conform to several ISO norms, including

14000’s regarding environmental management and 9000’s for quality management.
Their products also have the ISO conformity required as their Self-driving vehicle do
with 26262.

Last but not least, I think ​they already go further than ISO with meticulous testing of
NVIDIA DRIVE.

Sources:
ISO 14000/9000/26262 (2018). Retrieved from
↳​https://www.iso.org/
Nvidia Sustainability report (2017). Retrieved from
↳​http://images.nvidia.com/content/crr/2017/sustainability/pdf/2017-NVIDIA-Sustainability-Report-Final.
pdf
Nvidia Supply Chain (2017). Retrieved from
↳​http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1235723100641.html
Nvidia DRIVE (2018, January 10). Retrieved from
↳​https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-worlds-first-functionally-safe-ai-self-driving-pla
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