Nvidia unveiled its new Cosmos artificial intelligence platform at the CES Las Vegas trade show, which the company plans to use to teach humanoid robots to perform repetitive tasks, and train autonomous systems in trucks hauling freight.

"The autonomous vehicle revolution has arrived," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said during his keynote address at the conference on January 6. "Just as computer graphics was revolutionized at such an incredible pace, you’re going to see the pace of AV development increasing tremendously over the next several years." 

Huang detailed how the Cosmos platform can search and analyze video data to develop training scenarios, ranging from how to maneuver a vehicle on snowy roads, to managing warehouse congestion. It can then simulate those scenarios for robots and vehicles virtually, training them how to handle those situations in real life.

Nvidia also announced partnerships with automotive supplier Continental and autonomous vehicle company Aurora, who will use Nvidia's hardware and software to power their self-driving trucks. Aurora — which provides self-driving trucks to automakers such as Volvo, Toyota, Kenworth and PACCAR — is planning to launch its fully autonomous trucking service in Texas in 2025. Continental has already been working with Aurora to develop autonomous hardware kits for mass production, and is looking to debut a secondary driving system in 2027, which would be designed to take over control of a vehicle if the primary Aurora system fails.