NVIDIA's Driverless Car Tech Lead Just Got Wider

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) has been working for years to bring its semi-autonomous vehicle technology to the roads, and the company just showed that it continues to be a leader in the space with the debut of Audi's (NASDAQOTH: AUDVF) new A8. Audi says its new luxury sedan is the first production vehicle capable of Level 3 automation, which allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel and give the car control in some driving conditions but still requires them to be aware of their surroundings, and stay ready to take back control if necessary.

As my fellow Fool John Rosevear recently pointed out, it's up to each automaker to say what self-driving level its cars are, and standards are not universal. So Audi's new A8 may not technically have more semi-autonomous driving features than Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) Model S, which Tesla describes as only Level 2.

Then why is all of this big news for NVIDIA? Because no matter which automaker technically has the most advanced semi-autonomous vehicle on the road, the chipmaker's technology is consistently used in many of them.

Source: Fool.com