Nov 11, 2016, 4:15pm ET

Nvidia expects its AI chips to enable fully autonomous driving next year

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang suggests AI improvements represent the final hurdle, rather than any \'detection problem.\'

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang expects his company to be at the forefront of automotive autonomy, providing AI technology that will hasten the development of fully self-driving cars.

Speaking to analysts following a quarterly earnings report, the executive argued that autonomous vehicles face one final hurdle in overcoming an "AI problem," rather than a "detection problem," before the technology is ready for the market, according to quotes published by Electrek.

Nvidia's Drive PX platform serves as the computer module for autonomous systems, pairing multiple CPUs and GPUs with a 'deep learning' software architecture to process streams of live data.

In all new Tesla vehicles, the second-generation PX 2 hardware processes data from eight cameras and multiple sensors using radar and ultrasonic signals. The hardware configuration is expected to be capable of fully autonomous operation, pending ongoing software development over the next year.

"I think what Tesla has done by launching and having on the road in the very near-future here, a full autonomous driving capability using AI, that has sent a shock wave through the automotive industry," Huang said. "It's basically five years ahead. Anybody who's talking about 2021 ... that's just a non-starter anymore."

Aside from raw computing performance, Huang argues that automakers will be attracted to hardware platforms that are flexible and allow customized software layers that can be regularly updated.

"The ability for car companies to own their own software once they develop it on our platform is a real positive," he added. "And real positive to the point where it's enabling or it's essential for the future of the driving fleet."

Tesla plans to demonstrate the system with a completely autonomous drive from Los Angeles to New York without any intervention from a human driver.