2025AD: You mentioned the race among all players towards fully autonomous driving – which could also be seen at this year’s CES which was overflowing with bold announcements. Are we experiencing a hype?

Shapiro: Some people call it hype, but I do not agree with that. It really is a transformative time. There is a lot of news being reported simply because there is a great deal of activity and advancements being made. Virtually every automaker is working on some form of automated driving. Of course, not every company is going to make it. It is true that we’re working with over 320 partners that develop autonomous driving solutions on our NVIDIA DRIVE platform. This includes over 150 startups working on new sensor technology, mapping or algorithms. Some of these companies might not still be around at the end of this year. Others might be bought by bigger companies. But the truth of the matter is that we will see great advancements this year and in the next few years to come.

2025AD: With NVIDIA having more than 320 partners, to what extent is it possible for carmakers to customize products to allow for differentiation?

Shapiro: Developing an autonomous vehicle computer is very different than supplying a component. We do not sell a fixed product for a carmaker to simply stick in their car. Rather, NVIDIA has a true development relationship with carmakers. We are building programmable computer systems comprised of hardware and a massive amount of software. NVIDIA DRIVE is an open system, meaning our customers build their applications on top of our technology. That gives them the ability to customize the user experience, the features of that vehicle, and the level of automation. They will also have the ability to update the car over time – much like updates for your smartphone. For instance, Tesla built their car around NVIDIA technology. With software updates, they can change the user interface, they can change driving dynamics, and they can add new autonomous capabilities.

2025AD: Your CEO Jensen Huang announced at CES the DRIVE Xavier, the new processor with an unheard-of amount of processing power, enables fully autonomous driving. Would you consider the question of providing sufficient computing power for driverless cars solved?

Shapiro: There is never enough computing performance. The deep neural networks that we are running will continue to become more and more complex. There will be more sensors on vehicles, generating more data – so the need for computation in the car will continue to increase. The critical issue here is safety. We will need to increase the level of redundancy in systems. DRIVE Xavier delivers the highest level of compute performance today, and its energy efficiency is designed to enable production AV systems. But for a level 5 Robotaxi, we envision multiple Xavier processors plus discrete GPUs being combined to deliver the computation required. Much like humans are constantly learning, these cars will continue to get smarter and smarter over time.