By Godson Umejiego, Bureau Chief, The Americas
CES 2024 kicked off today with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. underscoring global momentum and its leading position as the automotive industry’s partner-of-choice, spotlighting the breadth, maturity and breakthrough innovations across its Snapdragon® Digital Chassis™ portfolio. The increasing demand for power efficient, open and scalable solutions has made Qualcomm Technologies a trusted partner to serve the needs of the automotive industry and has empowered the company to become the driving force in shaping its software-defined future.
“Qualcomm Technologies has been a trusted partner to the automotive industry for more than two decades, delivering innovation and proven platforms through the Snapdragon Digital Chassis to redefine the automobile,” said senior vice president and general manager, automotive & cloud computing, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc Nakul Duggal. “Our commitment to advancing automotive technology in support of global automakers, Tier-1 suppliers and our ecosystem partners is helping shape the future of software-defined vehicles and is accelerating us into a new era for the automotive industry.”
Qualcomm Technologies offers the broadest portfolio of automotive technologies spanning all major vehicle domains and continues to expand its portfolio to set the bar of innovation, including support for the two-wheeler and micro mobility segment. The company is in its 20th year supplying technology for the automotive industry with revenue growing by double digits year-over-year, which has been driven by the increased adoption of Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions which support:
Personalized and Immersive Experiences with the Snapdragon® Auto Connectivity Platform
Connectivity remains integral to the automotive industry’s digital transformation, powering an unprecedented amount of innovation. With the comprehensive Snapdragon Auto Connectivity Platform roadmap developed through Qualcomm Technologies’ multiple decades of connectivity leadership, automakers are being equipped to meet the increasing needs for higher levels of safety and intelligence powered by LTE, 5G, connected services, vehicle-to-everything (V2X), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Satellite communications and precise positioning.
The Modern Automotive Cockpit with the Snapdragon® Cockpit Platform
The digital cockpit continues to play a critical role in enabling the premium in-vehicle experiences consumers now expect and how automakers extend their brand. The Snapdragon Cockpit Platform delivers advanced functionality to help automakers create highly immersive, intuitive, and sophisticated in-vehicle experiences leveraging its enhanced graphics, multi-media and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that can be scaled across vehicle tiers and personalized for every occupant. Today, Qualcomm Technologies remains the industry leader in advanced cockpit systems, with all major automakers selecting the Snapdragon Cockpit Platform to power their digital cabins.
The Road Ahead With AI
The new era of AI is here, and edge-based generative AI will play a critical role in transforming the cabin with the goal of delivering powerful, efficient, private, safer and more personalized experiences to drivers and passengers, running on the edge. Committed to bringing cutting-edge technological innovation to the automotive industry concurrently with its introduction into the consumer ecosystem, Qualcomm Technologies welcomes the new era of AI for automotive and is leveraging its industry-leading AI hardware, and software solutions, for the Snapdragon Digital Chassis Platform to help drive automotive AI forward.
The Advancement of Autonomous Vehicle Technology with the Snapdragon Ride™ Platform
The Snapdragon Ride Platform is comprised of one of the automotive industry’s most advanced, scalable and customizable automated driving system-on-chip (SoC) family that is designed to help global automakers and Tier-1 suppliers build efficient automated driving (AD) solutions. The Snapdragon Ride Platform is enhanced by a comprehensive and scalable AD stack and perception solution, targeting Active Safety to L2+/L3 functions, that employs a forward-thinking architecture and data-driven development approaches powered by the Snapdragon Ride Cloud solutions, and generative AI simulation capabilities. Additionally, the Snapdragon Ride Platform offers a full solution with a suite of tools that enable automakers and Tier-1 suppliers to develop and implement proven AD stacks for power-efficient solutions, while helping accelerate time-to-market. These offerings, which continue to gain momentum across the globe, provide a strong foundation for global automakers to enhance their mobility user experience and remain on the leading edge of AD technology.
High Performance Centralized Computing with Snapdragon Ride™ Flex SoC
As modern vehicle architectures become more complex, central computers for automotive have become critical to help orchestrate various functions within the vehicle efficiently. To support this, Qualcomm Technologies offers its high-performance central compute SoCs, the Snapdragon Ride Flex SoC, designed to support mixed-criticality workloads across heterogenous compute resources, allowing for digital cockpit, ADAS and AD functions to co-exist on a single SoC. With the Flex SoC’s automakers will be equipped to develop next generation vehicle systems that are cost effective and scalable across all vehicle tiers. Momentum for the Flex SoC has grown through new technology collaborations with Bosch, Megatronix, Autolink, ThunderX and more.
Connected Services with Snapdragon® Car-to-Cloud
With vehicles becoming more and more connected, unique opportunities are on the rise for automakers and fleet service providers to offer connected services that generate new, ongoing sources of revenue that will reshape business models and the ways in which everyday drivers interact with their vehicles. With Snapdragon Car-to-Cloud, new features and services can be added throughout the vehicle’s lifecycle for highly personalized experiences across all tiers – allowing automakers and fleet providers to stay directly connected to consumers beyond the point of sale. Snapdragon Car-to-Cloud Services continue to gain momentum with ecosystem players like Salesforce, JPMorgan and Daon, with the joint goal of enabling automakers and other service providers to deliver innovative and exciting feature upgrades and connected services to customers on-demand.
Connected Services
Co-Innovation Revolutionizing Vehicle Development Lifecycle
Qualcomm Technologies’ strategic collaborations and technology partnerships with leading automakers and ecosystem partners are contributing innovative solutions that the broader automotive industry is benefiting from. As a part of Qualcomm Technologies and AWS’s joint commitment to advance software-defined mobility, the companies demonstrated a highly efficient cloud-native environment for automotive application development and deployment utilizing Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions with AWS’s cutting-edge cloud infrastructure. Designed to help expedite the evolution of software development, the environment helps automakers introduce new features faster, while providing them the ability to enable differentiated user experiences across the vehicle’s lifecycle. The demonstration is available at Qualcomm Technologies booth throughout the week.
The Digital Transformation Beyond Automotive with Snapdragon Digital Chassis Platforms for Two-wheelers and New Vehicle Classes
Helping advance the development and management of the growing micro mobility and motorized vehicle segment, Qualcomm Technologies offers Snapdragon Digital Chassis SoCs for Two-wheelers and new vehicle class segments. Designed to enhance safety and experiences for the end user, the fully integrated solutions bring connectivity, infotainment, advanced rider assistance systems (ARAS) and personalized, cloud-connected digital services to motorcycles, ICE and electric scooters, 3-wheelers, e-bikes, ATVs, and vehicles for farming and agriculture. Driven by the need for safe, sustainable and affordable mobility, the new Snapdragon Digital Chassis SoCs for Two-wheelers and new vehicle classes has continued to grow since its introduction in September.
