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NVIDIA and Mercedes-Benz are Building AI-Powered Self-Driving Cars

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On Tuesday, leading smartphone chipmaker NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) and Mercedes-Benz, owned by Daimler AG have announced a partnership to build self-driving cars powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

Expected to hit the market within the next year, the cars will feature self-driving capabilities, and an active driver assistance function called “Co-Pilot.” Co-Pilot looks to be similar to Tesla Motors’ (TSLA - Free Report) Autopilot, the company’s semi-autonomous driving system.

Autopilot-enabled vehicles keep the cars in-lane, adjust speed in accordance with other cars on the road, change lanes autonomously, scan for parking spaces, and even self-park. Co-Pilot, however, has the potential to be even more sophisticated.

Speaking at the recent 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), NVIDIA founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang and Mercedes-Benz Vice President of Digital Vehicle and Mobility Sajjad Khan believe AI is going to “revolutionize” automobiles going forward.

“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.

Mercedes-Benz is not NVIDIA’s first self-driving car collaboration. The company partnered with Tesla last year, and all Tesla models—Model S, Model X, and the Model 3, are equipped with an NVIDIA-powered on-board “supercomputer” that can provide full self-driving capability.

NVIDIA also showed off two other self-driving cars at CES 2017: a Lincoln MKZ retrofitted with autonomous driving sensors, and an Audi Q7, which is equipped with the company’s DRIVE PX 2 in-car computer. DRIVE learns by observing the action of human drivers, and the vehicles were “trained” in Vegas on only four days of driving before debuting at CES.

For more information on self-driving cars and artificial intelligence, check out these Zacks articles: Your Ultimate Guide to the Self-Driving Car Market and Exploring the Uncharted World of Artificial Intelligence

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