CES 2016: Nvidia - Rear vision mirrors superseded

What's as powerful as 150 MacBook Pros, can drive a car without human intervention and removes the need for rear vision mirrors altogether? The Nvidia Drive PX 2, a liquid-cooled computer chipset that its makers claim will accelerate the development of autonomous motoring.

"We don't need rear vision mirrors anymore," said Nvidia CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang at the launch of the Drive PX 2, a "self-driving supercomputer", at the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, in Las Vegas today.

The tech guru says his Drive PX 2 computing hardware has deep learning capabilities and will revolutionise the automotive world by enabling safe, predictable autonomous vehicle operation.

And he may be half right, with Volvo today confirming it's adopted the brand-new technology to underpin its tilt at becoming the world's first mainstream car maker to deploy a self-driving car.

Huang revealed that Volvo will embark on a public test in 2017 that will see 100 autonomous cars let loose in the Swedish capital of Gothenburg, using Nvidia's new computer brain.

Nvidia chipsets are already used by various car makers, powering the likes of Audi's 'virtual cockpit' instrument display, and Nvidia's shares rose by 64 per cent in 2015 on the back of increased demand from the automotive sector.

Mercedes-Benz, Ford, BMW, Audi, Volvo and Tesla currently use Nvidia processing hardware in various different ways, with around 50 companies – most of them automotive – currently leveraging Nvidia PX hardware.

Autonomous motoring will soon become a reality when legislators catch up to the technology, but as we've written in the past, there are many ethical dilemmas involved. Indeed, who is at fault when someone is injured, or worse, by a self-driving car?