By Andrew J. Hawkins
Publication Date: 2026-01-05 23:00:00
It’s a beautiful, cloudless day in San Francisco, and I’m sitting in the passenger seat of a Mercedes-Benz CLA sedan. The driver, Lucas, has his hands on the steering wheel, but it’s really just for show: the car is essentially driving itself.
The vehicle is using Nvidia’s new point-to-point Level 2 (L2) driver-assist system that is getting ready to roll out to more automakers in 2026. This is the chipmaker’s big bet on driving automation, one it thinks can help grow its tiny automotive business into something more substantial and more profitable. Think of it as Nvidia’s answer to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving.
For roughly 40 minutes, we navigate a typically chaotic day in San Francisco, passing delivery trucks, cyclists, pedestrians, and even the occasional Waymo robotaxi. The Mercedes, under guidance from Nvidia’s AI-powered system as well as its own built-in cameras and radar, handles itself confidently: traffic signals, four-way stops, double-parked cars, and even the occasional unprotected left. At one point, it makes a wide right turn to avoid a truck that’s blocking an intersection, but not before allowing a few slowly moving pedestrians to cross in front.
Tesla fans would likely scoff at Nvidia’s demonstration, arguing that Full Self-Driving is orders of magnitude more capable. Nvidia hasn’t been working on this problem as long as Elon Musk’s company, but what they showed me absolutely would go toe-to-toe with FSD under the most complex…
