NVIDIA says it is getting closer to implementing self-driving cars with its Xavier System-on-a-Chip.

Current autonomous vehicle technology is capable of steering itself on highways during rush hour or while parallel parking, but it is not yet capable of operating on its own in all situations. At CES 2018, NVIDIA unveiled Drive Xavier, a system-on-chip (SoC).



Development is being done in stages, similar to the slow steam engine car that was the first to develop into a gasoline-powered car. The prototype cars that are already cruising along California’s highways, packed with servers, will need to be equipped with more computing power in smaller spaces to evolve into self-driving cars that anyone can drive.

Nvidia sees one of these enabling technologies as its Xavier System-on-a-Chip, a system-on-a-chip with 9 billion transistors and $2 billion invested in research and development.