REUTERS/Steve Marcus
An autonomous-driving Lincoln MKZ equipped with Nvidia technology gives demonstration rides during the 2017 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., January 5, 2017.
Nvidia continued its world tour on Tuesday as CEO Jensen Huang took to the stage in Munich to announce a slate of new products aimed at car companies.
Nvidia is trading up 2.75% at $190.89 early on Tuesday after the announcement of a new self-driving chip, and a virtual design studio for car designers and others.
The most consequential of the announcements was the new Drive PX Pegasus chip. The new chip is aimed at "Level 5" autonomous driving, the highest level of autonomy. That means the new chip would enable robo taxis, or fully-autonomous taxis, to be operated completely independently of a human driver.
The chips provide a massive amount of computing power in a small form factor. The Pegasus chip is about the size of a license plate and replaces what is currently an "entire trunk full of computing equipment," according to the company.
"In the old world, the more powerful your engine, the smoother your ride will be," Huang said on the Munich stage. "In the future, the more computational performance you have, the smoother your ride will be."
The company also announced Drive IX (Intelligent Experience), a software product that allows car makers to more easily process sensor data to build applications like face recognition for unlocking a car, for example.
Nvidia demoed its Holodeck VR design app during the event as well. The technology allows car designers from across the world to meet around a 3D model of an upcoming vehicle to discuss design points, for example.
Those announcements are Nvidia's latest attempt to cement its status at the forefront of the autonomous driving world. Two of the expected leading car makers, General Motors and Tesla, are both trying to vertically integrate their self-driving car technologies, and Tesla recently moved away from Nvidia to partner with rival AMD.
Nvidia is up 88.71% this year.
