Nvidia has added hundreds of staff in China this year to enhance its research capabilities and focus on new autonomous driving technologies. The world's second most valuable company will end the year with about 4,000 people in China, up from just about 3,000 at the start of 2024, people familiar with its operations said. In a key part of that expansion, Nvidia added about 200 people in Beijing to beef up a team of researchers working on self-driving technology, the people said, asking not to be named as the information is private. The U.S. company also enlarged its after-sales service and networking software development teams, one person said. Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia is expanding its headcount globally as it works to fulfill runaway demand for its artificial intelligence chips.

Technology is all around us and we are all fascinated with the concept of things happening automatically. It all comes down to get things done more conveniently and let machines do our job so that we can invest that time somewhere else to work on something more productive. Gradually, we have saved so much time and got used to technology that it has now replaced several of our tasks. Speaking of machines performing human tasks, a few years ago we dreamt of having self-driven cars (AI autopilot) and we are still waiting for those to hit the roads. What happened with that initiative?

Car manufacturers know: There's a huge amount of interest in AI-driven cars. Many people would love to automate the task of driving, because they find it tedious or at times impossible. A competent AI driver would have lightning-fast reflexes, would never weave or drift in its lane, and would never drive aggressively. An AI driver would never get tired and could take the wheel for endless hours while we humans nap or party. While AI does need huge volumes of data to program and guide it, that shouldn't be a problem.