Announcing the news at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the partnership aims to have Audi models with Level 4 autonomy – full autonomy outside extreme scenarios – by the end of the decade, which is relatively aggressive compared to some German rivals which have tabled 2025 for the arrival of such cars.

Using Nvidia’s artificial intelligence technology, the firms are showcasing the possibilities with a Q7 test car in the car park of CES, which has learned to drive itself in four days. Commenting on the experiment, Audi USA boss, Scott Keogh, said: “This is really huge. We’re talking highly automated vehicles in numerous situations. This will be in production by 2020.”

He described Audi as liking to “compete and innovate” and referenced the changing culture with autonomous driving, saying: “These are big societal changes we can make together.”

An Nvidia spokesman commented: “We want to turn your car into an AI and revolutionise the automobile and bring joy and safety to millions of people.”

Nvidia also announced a number of other partnerships, including one with German engineering firm Bosch and Audi, BMW and Daimler-owned mapping company, Here.

It also highlighted new technology for autonomous cars, such as tracking a driver’s gaze so a car knows when a person doesn’t have their eyes on the road, and lip reading to 95 percent accuracy.