Mercedes-Benz and NVIDIA today at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas announced a partnership to bring an NVIDIA AI-powered car to market.

The news broke during the Mercedes Benz Inspiration talk at CES 2017 featuring NVIDIA founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang and Mercedes-Benz Vice President of Digital Vehicle and Mobility Sajjad Khan.

The collaboration began three years ago, Jen-Hsun explained. “When our teams came together there was instant chemistry, and we share a common vision about how AI can change your driving experience, and make it more enjoyable.”

“At this point it is very clear that AI is going to be the future of computing. This is an endeavor that we started three years ago that we will put on the road next year – unbelievable,” Jen-Hsun said.

“I am very proud of saying that within 12 months we are rolling out a product with NVIDIA,” Khan added.

Deep Collaboration

The work is part of an ongoing collaboration focused on deep learning and artificial intelligence.

“This breakthrough called deep learning happened several years ago, and it has completely revolutionized computing from the way you speak to your phone now to the way you take photos and upload to the cloud and how it automatically tags and hosts it for you,” Jen-Hsun said.

“We have teams co-located with each other,” Khan said. “We have an office in Sunnyvale. Jen-Hsun has a team in Stuttgart.”

“Mercedes-Benz and NVIDIA share a common vision of the AI car. At this point it is clear AI will revolutionize the future of automobiles,” Jen-Hsun said.