
The number of white knuckles on Silicon Valley highways may be on its way down.
This month, an NVIDIA autonomous test vehicle, nicknamed BB8, completed an 80-kilometer (approximately 50-mile) route near company headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., without the safety driver ever taking control.
Running on the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Pegasus AI supercomputer, the car handled highway on- and off-ramps and numerous lane changes entirely on its own, marking a significant step toward a self-driving future.
With industry-leading compute performance, a single DRIVE AGX Pegasus platform ran both NVIDIA DRIVE AV software, which handles autonomous driving functions like object detection and 360-degree surround perception, and the DRIVE IX intelligent experience software stack, which processes voice commands and monitors the driver to ensure they are paying attention.
This revolutionary drive was no science experiment - it was completed using entirely shippable parts. The sensors, embedded DRIVE AGX Pegasus platform and software are all available to autonomous vehicle developers.
This is not a demo, this is something you can get right now, said NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang at GTC Europe Wednesday.
An NVIDIA autonomous test vehicle completed an 80-kilometer route without any human intervention. NVIDIA always conducts public road tests with two trained drivers in the vehicle. One supervises the environment from the driver's seat and another in the passenger seat observes both the driver and the environment. In addition, this test drive deployed Drive IX, which uses infrared camera to monitor where the driver is looking at all times as well as attentiveness and fatigue.
Two Software Stacks, One Platform In the past decade of development, self-driving test vehicles have relied on bulky PCs and servers wired up in the trunk to run the various deep learning and path planning algorithms for autonomous driving. However, to deploy production-level self-driving cars, autonomous driving hardware must have a significantly smaller footprint and consume much less energy.
At the size of a laptop computer, DRIVE AGX Pegasus is an incredibly energy-efficient hardware solution, capable of 320 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of performance. The supercomputer is able to run multiple deep neural networks at once for autonomous driving, including those for DRIVE AV and DRIVE IX.
This parallel processing capability means the vehicle is able to run deep neural networks for perception - like those found in DRIVE AV - while also running the algorithms for natural language processing to enable voice commands in DRIVE IX.
So, passengers may ask, What's the weather in San Francisco? as their car operates in autonomous mode, with the same computer running both tasks simultaneously.
Way Beyond Cruise Control With congested highways, frequent entrances and exits, and various construction sites, San Francisco Bay Area traffic is no Sunday drive. However, with a robust hardware and software suite, the NVIDIA BB8 vehicle handled infamous California traffic with ease.
By using deep neural networks to identify lanes, other vehicles and driveable space, the autonomous test car slowed when cars entered from the on-ramp into its lane, speeding back up to the pace of traffic once the car was at a safe distance.
BB8 also seamlessly executed lane changes, safely moving between lanes once it detected ample space.
The ability to navigate these complex and unpredictable traffic scenarios without intervention from a human driver is a major milestone in the journey to full autonomy, where roads will be safer, more efficient and open.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
30/04/2026
The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) concluded its third regular season on Saturday, reporting growth across attendance, viewership, digital engage...
30/04/2026
NBC Sports will air national MLB coverage on Sundays beginning May 3, with MLB Sunday Leadoff on Peacock and NBCSN at 12:30 p.m. ET, followed by the debut of th...
30/04/2026
Clear-Com has appointed Brian Grahn as Market Outreach Manager of the Americas and Ben Turnwell as Business Development Manager for EMEA live.
Grahn joined Cle...
30/04/2026
ARRI has introduced the cforce MAX, a new lens motor for the Hi-5 lens control system. The cforce MAX is twice as fast as the cforce plus motor it replaces whil...
30/04/2026
Knuerr, Voxtronic, and IHSE will jointly present an integrated control room solu...
30/04/2026
The CW Network and ESPN have announced an agreement to make the ESPN App the exclusive streaming home for all CW Sports live events. CW Sports will continue to ...
30/04/2026
Ed Sheeran's The Loop' tour launched in Auckland in January 2026 before moving on to Australia, with South America and the United States to follow late...
30/04/2026
Audinate has announced Dante Preset Creator, a free online tool for configuring Dante network settings before hardware is available on site. Presets created in ...
30/04/2026
Yahoo Sports has announced the appointment of Jarrod Schwarz as General Manager of Yahoo Sports. Schwarz will oversee product, design, and technology; revenue a...
30/04/2026
Nielsen has released a new report, Get Ready with Media Intelligence: 2026 FIFA World Cup Edition, examining U.S. soccer viewership trends, fan engagement, and ...
30/04/2026
USA Lacrosse and SportsEngine have announced an expanded partnership, naming Spo...
30/04/2026
Telos Alliance will participate in the 2026 Media Production and Technology Show (MPTS), taking place May 13-14 at Olympia London. Rather than exhibiting from a...
30/04/2026
The global streamer buys the U.S. DTC platform solutions provider for a reported...
30/04/2026
Tigo Sports, Paraguay's leading sports broadcaster, has upgraded its video infrastructure with Ateme solutions for live encoding, multiplexing, and signal c...
30/04/2026
World Rugby and IMG have announced a long-term media rights partnership focused on growing rugby in the United States ahead of the Men's and Women's Rug...
30/04/2026
For the second year in a row, Overtime and the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) are teaming up through a renewed content partnership to bring fans even...
30/04/2026
The 22-year ESPN vet's responsibilities will reportedly be taken over by SVP Mike Foss...
30/04/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
30/04/2026
Amazon and Duke University have announced a multiyear agreement for Prime Video to present exclusive coverage of three Duke Blue Devils men's basketball neu...
30/04/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
30/04/2026
Music is evolving, and so are the ways you discover and connect with artists. In...
30/04/2026
Between April 22-29, the first inaugural Stockholm Music Week brought together thought leaders and partners across industries including music, tech, government,...
30/04/2026
Iconic large-format console upgraded
API's iconic Vision console has just been treated to an overhaul that aims to meet the demands of today's profe...
30/04/2026
Comes complete with miking accessories
The LCT 440 Pure has proven to be a popular member of Lewitt's mic line-up, offering impressive technical perform...
30/04/2026
24 October 2026 at The Octagon, Sheffield
Now in its eighth year, SynthFest UK is the largest event of its kind in the UK, bringing together the top keyboar...
30/04/2026
SBS & NITV LEAD NATIONAL RECONCILIATION WEEK 2026 WITH LANDMARK GULPILIL DOCUMEN...
30/04/2026
Rohde & Schwarz equips new Terminal 3 at Frankfurt Airport with security scanner...
30/04/2026
Rohde & Schwarz expands broadband amplifier portfolio with new power classes up ...
30/04/2026
Jennifer Ehle (Contagion, Zero Dark Thirty) and Alex Hassell (Rivals, Wasteman, ...
30/04/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., April 29, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) today announ...
30/04/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., April 30, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) reports first quarter 2026 results.
Highlights
Orders of $7.8 billion; book-to-bill of 1....
30/04/2026
Behind the Broadcast: The Sound of Elite Golf Golf is gaining popularity; the 2025 Ryder Cup achieved record-breaking viewing figures in the UK specifically, wi...
30/04/2026
STA VENERA, MALTA, APRIL 29, 2026 CPI Media, a voluntary organization within the Missionary Society of St Paul (MSSP) and a leading media house dedicated to p...
30/04/2026
New software platform delivers comprehensive timing measurement across production workflows...
30/04/2026
Once again, the UK Pavilion in Hall 5 of BroadcastAsia 2026 will feature the latest and best in technology specifically developed and tailored for modern media ...
30/04/2026
Avid powers faster workflows and next-generation immersive audio with latest Pro...
30/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/04/2026
Scalable broadcast-grade production over public internet, replacing traditional OB workflows...
30/04/2026
Live demonstrations highlight LCEVC ecosystem momentum, AI-powered video pipelines, and expansion across broadcast, streaming, and social media.
DTV (TV 3.0) ...
30/04/2026
Student Spotlight: Matthew Leon The dual major shares his path from community college to Berklee, and how his heritage influences his work.
April 29, 2026
B...
30/04/2026
Berklee Artists to Perform at Major Global Music Festivals As part of the Berklee Popular Music Institute, students will perform at Lollapalooza, Governors Ba...
30/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...