Data centers on wheels: how large is the carbon footprint of self-driving cars?

We interact with computing in many ways in our daily lives today, with data centers already responsible for 0.3% of global emissions. In this talk, researcher Soumya Sudhakar explores the potential emissions from computing if everyone’s daily lives one day involved riding in autonomous vehicles. Innovations in energy-efficient hardware and algorithm designs can help constrain the potential carbon footprint of computers onboard a future global fleet of autonomous vehicles. Soumya Sudhakar SM ’20 is a PhD student in aeronautics and astronautics. Her work is focused on the co-design of new algorithms and integrated circuits for autonomous low-energy robotics that could have novel applications in aerospace and consumer electronics. Her contributions bring together the emerging robotics industry, integrated circuits industry, aerospace industry, and consumer electronics industry. Sudhakar earned her BSE in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University and her MS in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.