Nvidia is teaming up with Chinese technology giant Baidu to develop its very own self-driving cars. The partnership will see the two companies use artificial intelligence to build an autonomous car platform that can be shared with car manufacturers.
The goal is to be able to create a fleet of autonomous taxis for Baidu to operate; although it doesn’t quite say where this fleet will be deployed. Once this has been achieved, the platform will be shared with other partners. Ideally, this will create a network of connected autonomous vehicles.
Nvidia has not been shy about its self-driving car aspirations, and believes that its PX 2 car AI development platform is up to the challenge. “We can start applying these capabilities to solve the grand challenges of AI, one of which is intelligent machines. One of the intelligent machines we would like to build in the future is the self-driving car,” said Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.
Baidu has already received permission to begin testing autonomous vehicles in the US state of California; where other self-driving cars are also being trialed. Nvidia and Baidu’s machine will be joined on the roads by prototypes from Google, Tesla, and Ford.
While the testing ground is located in the US, the actual taxi service appears to be destined to be used in China. Although, Nvidia has said that the AI platform will be available to all car manufacturers across the globe.
[Source: Nvidia]
