NVIDIA, a leading GPU maker, has been emerging as an important computing power supplier for the automotive industry’s transition to autonomous driving. Over the past two decades, the computing power in the passenger cars has increased significantly, but it’s nothing compared to how it will have to increase over the next decade in order for cars to drive themselves.

Toyota has become today the latest automaker to team up with NVIDIA in order to accelerate their autonomous vehicle program.

The Japanese automaker will use NVIDIA’s Drive PX platform, which Tesla has been using in all its vehicles since last year.

Ken Koibuchi, executive general manager at Toyota, commented on the announcement:

“Toyota has worked on autonomous driving technologies for over 20 years with the aim of reducing traffic fatalities to zero as an ultimate goal, achieving smoother traffic, and providing mobility for all. Through this collaboration, we intend to accelerate the development of autonomous driving systems that are even more safe and capable.”

Engineering teams from both companies are also working together to integrate NVIDIA’s platform in Toyota’s test vehicles and to work with their sensors.

In March, Toyota unveiled the latest version of their autonomous test vehicle and it is equipped with many sensors:

Jensen Huang, chief executive officer and founder of NVIDIA, also commented on the announcement:

“We envision a future society where autonomous vehicles whisk people safely and comfortably around beautiful cities. The development of a self-driving car is one of the greatest technical challenges that’s ever been tackled. We’re combining breakthroughs in AI and high performance computing to build NVIDIA DRIVE PX, the brain of the autonomous car. Today’s announcement with Toyota is the strongest indication that this autonomous future will soon become a reality,”

In a press release, the two companies say that they “planned for market introduction within the next few years.” Most companies working on self-driving technology are currently talking about commercialisation in 2019-2021.