NVIDIA : DRIVE Car Computer Drawing Throngs at CES

There are car guys and there are car guys. People who enjoy cars, and people who build cars.

And if you step inside our booth at the 2017 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, you'll find a lot of people who know more than a few things about building cars, trucks, and other kind of transportation.

Of course, it's now an open secret that CES has become the world's foremost automotive technology show, with the show's North Hall packed with car makers - and companies supplying them with technology.

Maybe that's why it was almost impossible to claw your way past the scores of people gawking a glass display show our NVIDIA DRIVE PX AI car compter to get a glimpse at the big screen displays showing our autonomous car, BB8, in action, and a demo of AI Co-Pilot, which promises to help your car understand you as well as it does the world around it.

And they're not just impressed. They're curious - eagerly grilling anyone from NVIDIA who steps up to them with a notebook to learn what they think.

They come from automakers and automotive startups, insurance companies and Tier One automotive suppliers. They're eager to learn more, even if they're not always eager to see their names in print.

And more than a few of these car guys will admit, privately, that they're ready to put down the wheel and leave the driving to AI. 'I'm ready,' an engineer at a well-known British luxury carmaker admitted with a smile and a nod when asked if he want a car that drives itself.

Others were ready to take things a step further. 'I think it's cool,' said Michael Palmer, an engineer with truck platooning system provider Peloton Technology, based in Mountain View, Calif., who's about to try our DRIVE PX 2 AI car computer.

The real surprise, though: even these hardest of hard core car people ready for an autonomous vehicle. 'That's a trick question,' one engineer said, when asked if he'd ever buy a self-driving car. 'I live in Los Angeles - I love to drive, at 2 o'clock in the morning.'

The rest of the time? He's ready to leave driving through the traffic-choked metropolis to us.