Nvidia and Mercedes-Benz announced plans on Tuesday for an in-vehicle computing and AI automated driving infrastructure for 2024 vehicles. The companies plan to enter a cooperative agreement that will be multi-year and valued at multiple billions of dollars in scope, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a livestreamed announcement with Mercedes-Benz AG CEO Ola Kallenius. Hundreds of engineers from both companies will be involved. The partnership will create cars that could last 10 to 20 years with constant software updates downloadable from the cloud and paid for by customers over the two decades. The vaunted Mercedes-Benz reputation for styling could mean that a 20-year-old car with constant software updates could become a classic worth more than when it was purchased, Huang said.

As a company, NVIDIA might be best known in the graphics card and gaming market, but its latest project and partnership with Mercedes-Benz is a notable departure. At CES 2017, NVIDIA and Mercedes-Benz announced plans to bring a vehicle with Nvidia-powered AI to market by the end of the year. During a keynote with NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang and Mercedes-Benz VP of Digital Vehicle and Mobility Sajjad Khan Sajjad Khan, Jen-Hsun announced the initial stages of the project, which started three years ago. "When our teams came together there was instant chemistry," Jen-Hsun said. "We share a common vision about how AI can change your driving experience and make it more enjoyable."

Nvidia already announced a partnership at CES to bring a AI self-driving car to production, and now Mercedes-Benz is also teaming up with the GPU-maker on a vehicle with AI on board. Nvidia and Mercedes-Benz are also setting an ambitious timeline for their goal; the two will field this new vehicle within the next 12 months, Nvidia confirmed to TechCrunch. The news came out on stage at a talk between Mercedes-Benz VP of Digital Vehicle and Mobility Sajjad Khan, and Nvidia CEO and co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang on Friday at CES. It's the result of a project the two began together three years ago, which helps explain why the car will be ready to get to customers by 2018. Mercedes and Nvidia have been working together with a specific focus on deep learning and AI.