LAS VEGAS—In front of a standing-room only crowd, Nvidia CEO and Founder Jen-Hsun Huang on Wednesday made a slew of announcements covering artificial intelligence for the home, self-driving cars, and of course, gaming.
AI Cars
Nvidia showed off a demo of its own self-driving car, known as BB8. As you can see in the video below, the car understands and follows commands like "take me to Starbucks," stopping and red lights when necessary, slowing for turns, merging onto then exiting off of the freeway, and basically doing everything else a human driver would—until you're ready to take control of the wheel.
Nvidia also announced something called Co-Pilot, which is basically an AI-powered backseat driver. For example, the technology will tell you there's a bicycle 45 feet ahead or to watch out for that motorcycle switching lanes up ahead. You know, everything your beloved significant other already does.
Finally, Nvidia said it's working with longtime partner Audi to put AI-powered cars on the roads starting in 2020. Your car might, for instance, notice that you're driving up the hill towards your house and ask if you want it to open the gate. This way, you can just drive right through without stopping.
At CES, attendees will have the chance to ride in a fully self-driving Audi Q7 (pictured above), with no one behind the wheel.
Towards the end of his presentation, Huang brought Audi of America President Scott Keogh on stage to talk about the initiative. Keogh lamented that his kids will be driving soon and pointed out that "one of the most dangerous things you can do" is drive as a teen.
But Huang, ever the innovator, had a simple solution to this problem. "Let's make sure none of our kids ever have to drive," he said.
Gaming
Nvidia also wants to bring PC games to the 1 billion people without a PC gaming rig. On that front, the company unveiled GeForce Now, a new cloud-based service that connects your basic Windows and Mac to powerful gaming computers in the cloud. This way, you'll be able to play graphically demanding games without a fancy gaming PC.
GeForce Now will be available in March, starting at $25 for 20 hours of play. Huang said the service has been in the works for the past five years. It wasn't easy to create, he said, since the computational needs of today's video games—like Mass Effect: Andromeda, which drops on March 21—are extremely high and latency would totally ruin the experience.
Speaking of Mass Effect: Andromeda, Nvidia used part of its keynote to give gamers a sneak peek at the upcoming RPG.
Home
As for the home, Nvidia showed off the new Nvidia Shield TV. The upgraded, $200 Android media streamer, available for pre-order now and shipping later this month, is "the first entertainment platform able to enjoy Netflix and Amazon content in 4K HDR," Huang said. It also supports YouTube, Google Play Movies, and Vudu 4K content.
Nvidia is also working with Google to bring its Assistant to the TV. An upgrade to Shield TV in the coming months will let you use voice commands to find content; pause, rewind, and fast forward shows; and search the Web.
Nvidia is also launching a $50 AI microphone accessory called Spot, which extends the capabilities of Google Assistant throughout your home.