Nvidia's self-driving cars take to the streets of California

If there's going to be a self-driving car revolution, then Nvidia very much wants to be a part of it, and the company known for its graphics cards has now been given the all-clear to take its autonomous vehicles out on public roads in California.

Judging by reader photos submitted to The Verge, Nvidia has wasted no time in getting out and about in the Golden State, with its cars clearly branded with the Nvidia logo.

Nvidia may not be the first company you'd associate with self-driving motors, but it's been pushing its way into artificial intelligence and autonomous driving for a while now. The US tech firm wants to partner with established car manufacturers and provide the hardware and software they need to let their vehicles drive themselves.

Testing, testing

To do that, it needs to do a lot of test runs, and California is the perfect place to do it - the state has granted several licenses for companies wanting to give their self-driving cars a real run out, although for now a human being still needs to be on board.

In the not-too-distant future that requirement could be waived too, although only at designated test locations, and only once a stringent set of safety tests has been carried out. It's likely that cars will become capable of driving themselves well before regulators get around to actually making it all legal.

When that time comes, Nvidia wants to be at the forefront of the technology. The company recently released a video showing one of its intelligent autos on a private test track.

• This tiny Nvidia supercomputer will power self-driving cars