Nvidia partners with Mercedes on artificial intelligence Watch Now

Nvidia has announced at CES 2019 in Las Vegas that it will be building out artificial intelligence (AI) architecture for Mercedes-Benz cars.

"We're announcing a new partnership going forward, creating a computer that defines the future of autonomous vehicles, the future of AI, and the future of mobility," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Tuesday.

Mercedes and Nvidia are aiming to develop a single system with self-driving capabilities and "smart cockpit" functions, rather than the current system involving multiple small processors known as electronic control units (ECUs), where each ECU controls separate parts of the car such as the windows, door locks, power steering, and braking.

Nvidia Drive will form the centre of the all-vehicle architecture, the companies said, "adding high-performance, energy efficient compute to handle AI software for advanced mobility technologies".

"Centralizing and unifying compute in the car will make it easier to integrate and update advanced software features as they become available, whether for self-driving or AI-powered user experiences," Nvidia added.

"This supercomputer will enable Mercedes-Benz vehicles to run AI capabilities in the car and in the cockpit, from safe autonomous driving to innovative convenience features."

The two companies have partnered previously on AI, with Huang and Mercedes-Benz Executive Vice President Sajjad using last year's CES to reveal an AI-powered cockpit.

That AI system is now in seven car models, with nine more coming during 2019.

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Mercedes and Nvidia are also working with Bosch to kick off a robo-taxi service in San Jose in the second half of 2019.

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The Mercedes announcement comes a day after Nvidia announced Drive AutoPilot, a driver-assistance system for Level 2+ autonomous vehicles that integrates Nvidia's Xavier SoC processors with new Nvidia Drive software to process data from outside and inside the vehicle.

Nvidia is "for the first time pushing down into more mainstream driver systems", senior director for Automotive Danny Shapiro said on Monday at CES 2019.

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