Computing giant Nvidia has developed a new tech platform for self-driving cars, taking its first step into the automobile industry. The technology company, headed by Jensen Huang, officially unveiled the system at a recent conference, while also revealing its partnership with Mercedes to produce smarter autonomous vehicles in the near future.
Nvidia and Mercedes come together to unveil new self-driving tech
On January 6, 2026, Jensen Huang introduced the world to Nvidia’s latest self-driving system, titled Alpamayo, at the CES technology conference in Las Vegas. The Nvidia CEO explained that the innovation would add “reasoning” to self-sustaining vehicles and would allow the cars to “think through rare scenarios, drive safely in complex environments, and explain their driving decisions,” as per BBC.
Notably, Alpamayo is an open-source AI model that autonomous vehicle researchers can access without paying a price in order to retrain the model.
“The ChatGPT moment for physical AI is almost here,” Huang remarked as he announced Nvidia’s foray into the sector of self-driving cars.
Paolo Pescatore, a PP Foresight analyst, also shared his two cents on Nvidia’s new tech platform, stating, “NVIDIA’s pivot toward AI at scale and AI systems as differentiators will help keep it way ahead of rivals. Alpamayo represents a profound shift for NVIDIA, moving from being primarily a compute to a platform provider for physical AI ecosystems.”
At the conference, Huang and Nvidia also presented a video demonstration of their product, which featured an AI-powered Mercedes-Benz model coursing through the streets of San Francisco, while a passenger occupied the driving seat with his hands comfortably on his lap.
“It drives so naturally because it learned directly from human demonstrators, but in every single scenario…it tells you what it’s going to do, and it reasons about what it’s about to do,” Huang explained after the presentation.
Nvidia is currently working with Mercedes to produce self-driving cars, with Alpamayo at their core, and will begin releasing models in the US in the coming months. After launching their product in the country, Nvidia and Mercedes also have plans for the global market, with Europe and Asia being their primary targets.
Originally reported by Apoorv Rastogi on Mandatory.
