Nvidia hired Riccardo Mariani, Intel’s former chief functional safety technologist and an Intel Fellow, as its vice president of industry safety, according to an EE Times report published July 18, 2019. The newly created role was intended to coordinate safety strategy across Nvidia’s automotive, robotics, IoT and other businesses—not to announce a measured improvement in product safety.
Who was Riccardo Mariani, and what role did Nvidia give him?
EE Times reported that Mariani joined Nvidia in 2019 as vice president of industry safety. Nvidia described the position as a way to develop an “overarching safety view across multiple domains and technologies.” The report establishes the appointment and intended remit at that time; it does not establish his current employer or title.
Before Nvidia, Mariani was Intel’s chief functional safety technologist and an Intel Fellow. He had co-founded Yogitech and served as its chief technology officer. When Intel acquired Yogitech in 2016, Mariani joined Intel, according to EE Times. The publication credited him with inventing Yogitech’s faultRobust technology and related products, and with leading work on certifying semiconductor IP for high safety-integrity levels and creating electronic-design-automation tools for functional safety.
Why did Nvidia hire an Intel safety executive?
The appointment addressed an organizational challenge: as intelligent systems span vehicles, robots, connected devices, hardware and software, safety work cannot be confined to one product group. Nvidia said the role would help coordinate a company-wide approach. Mariani described his remit as aligning “safety strategies and cross segment safety processes, architecture, and products” so work could be leveraged across hardware and software platforms.
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He also said he would support the existing team in communicating safety concepts to customers, partners, regulatory agencies and government. That describes the goals of the role as stated in 2019; the report provides no measured safety outcomes or evidence that the hire made Nvidia systems safer.
What does a functional safety expert do?
In this context, functional safety concerns how systems are designed and assessed to reduce risks associated with failures. A senior safety leader’s work can include coordinating safety processes, architecture and product decisions across teams, as well as engaging with customers and standards organizations. Mariani’s described remit extended across Nvidia’s Auto, Robotics, IoT and other businesses and covered both hardware and software.
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Mariani framed this work as one part of “end-to-end dependability” for intelligent systems. He said reliability, availability, maintainability, security and time sensitivity also needed to coexist to provide services that are “trustable, deterministic and safe.” Those are his stated priorities, not a report of specific Nvidia product capabilities or results.
Why were ISO 26262 and SOTIF part of the story?
Mariani said he would represent Nvidia in standards work involving ISO 26262, ISO 21448 (SOTIF) and IEC 61508, alongside other Nvidia team members. The 2019 report identifies ISO 26262 as a road-vehicle functional-safety standard and ISO 21448 as Safety of the Intended Functionality (SOTIF).
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Mariani’s point was that ISO 26262 alone did not address every relevant risk in advanced driver-assistance and autonomous-driving systems. SOTIF concerns unreasonable risks that can arise even when there is no hardware or software malfunction. This is a high-level distinction from the report, not a complete technical explanation of either standard.
EE Times also identified Mariani as vice president for IEEE Computer Society standardization activities and chair of its Special Technical Community on Reliable, Safe, Secure and Time Deterministic Intelligent Systems. His standards work was therefore part of a wider professional remit, not just an internal Nvidia responsibility.
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What did Mariani say about choosing Nvidia?
Mariani said he chose Nvidia because of its “strong commitment on safety and recognized presence in safety critical automotive and embedded markets.” That is his explanation for accepting the position, as quoted by EE Times; it should not be treated as independent evidence of Nvidia’s safety performance.
He also said he wanted to continue focusing on “the overall ‘end-to-end dependability’ aspect of intelligent systems.” Together, his remarks describe why the company created the role and how he intended to approach it, rather than documenting the results of that work.
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What the 2019 report does—and does not—establish
- Established: EE Times reported on July 18, 2019, that Nvidia hired Mariani as vice president of industry safety, in a newly created role focused on cross-business safety coordination.
- Established: The report described his Intel and Yogitech background and his planned work on safety strategy, processes, architecture, products and standards engagement.
- Not established: The report does not confirm Mariani’s present-day employment or title, quantify any effect of the hire, or demonstrate specific safety outcomes for Nvidia products.
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