By Kif Leswing
Publication Date: 2026-01-05 22:01:00
Nvidia is building out an automotive tech business. Pictured here are its autonomous vehicle test cars at the company’s auto garage in Santa Clara, California, June 5, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Nvidia on Monday unveiled plans to test a robotaxi service with a partner as soon as 2027, highlighting the chipmaker’s ambition to become a major player in the world of self-driving cars.
The service would be offered with a partner, and would employ cars with “Level 4” driving, meaning they will be capable of driving without human intervention in pre-defined regions, Nvidia officials said at a self-driving demonstration in San Francisco last month. The company declined to name where it would operate and who its partner will be.
“We will probably start with a limited availability but work with the partner for us to get our footing,” Xinzhou Wu, Nvidia’s vice president of automotive, said at the event.
Since 2015, Nvidia has offered chips and other technology for cars under the brand name Drive, but that remains a small part of the company’s business. Automotive and robotics chips accounted for just $592 million in sales in the quarter ended in October, or about 1% of Nvidia’s total revenue. Nvidia announced a robotaxi partnership with Uber in October.
The chipmaker said in December that it had developed software that can power a self-driving car, and that Mercedes-Benz models to be released in late 2026 will be able to use Nvidia’s technology to navigate cities…
