Toyota to use Nvidia technology to power self-driving cars

Toyota has turned to Nvidia for technology to power its self-driving car research. The Japanese automaker would use Nvidia's Drive PX platform according to Nvidia CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, who  announced the partnership during his keynote speech at Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference in San Jose.

He noted that Toyota would be using the technology with the intent for production "in the next few years." According to commentators, the timing came in line with other automakers intent on putting self-driving cars on the road in 2020 or 2021.

The Toyota-Nvidia partnership comes as efforts gain momentum across the globe to develop self-driving car technology, led not just by automakers, but also automotive equipment suppliers and technology companies.

With self-driving cars, experts believe, thousands of traffic fatalities that occurred on US roads every year could be cut or eliminated.

The company had earlier said it would deploy advanced driver assistance features in all of its models. Its latest Corolla, for instance, near the bottom of the Toyota lineup, comes standard with collision prevention technologies, which can automatically hit the brakes if a pedestrian walked in front of the car.

According to commentators, there were a number of important details missing in the announcement. The companies did not say which cars will have the system. They also point out that Toyota's plans for deployment were also fuzzy.

Toyota has a two-pronged approach to development of autonomous vehicles.

It pursues a long-term goal of developing fully autonomous cars that would serve elderly and disabled people, while also working on technology for regular production cars that could switch between assisting the driver to full autonomy.

Toyota's so-called ''guardian angel'' works silently in the background and step in to take control of the car to avoid an accident.