Nvidia shows smaller AI computer for Baidu

US chipmaker Nvidia showed off on Monday a smaller and more efficient artificial intelligence (AI) computer for self-driving cars, saying it would power Baidu's mapping and autonomous vehicle technology. Chinese web services firm Baidu will deploy Nvidia's new Drive PX 2 as its in-vehicle car computer for its self-driving system, Nvidia said as it unveiled the computer in Beijing. As more carmakers develop plans for self-driving technology to roll out in their vehicles in the next decade or less, Nvidia is trying to lower the barriers to entry, providing powerful computers to help automakers enter the market. Earlier this month, Nvidia and Baidu announced a partnership to develop a full self-driving car architecture from the cloud to the vehicle using both firms' expertise in AI.

Nvidia said its new Drive PX 2 computer uses 10 watts of power and is half the size of the original version, launched in January. That solves a problem faced by carmakers incorporating self-driving technology - how to pack the punch of AI, which helps cars make decisions, into a compact computer suitable for production-ready vehicles.

Configured with a single processor, the Drive PX 2 fuses incoming data from sensors and uses deep neural networks to produce a complex picture of objects around a vehicle.