Qualcomm Unveils AI-Powered Automotive Platforms for Enhanced In-Car Experiences

Gen AI and 500 Sensors: I Tested a Car That Just Wants to Get to Know Me Better

Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand. I'm sitting in the passenger seat of the latest BMW i5 while, in the driver's seat, Qualcomm's group general manager of automotive, Nakul Duggal, is fiddling with the air conditioning on the giant display stretched out across the car's dashboard. This is the 2025 i5, the latest EV model in the luxury carmaker's lineup. It's here to show off Qualcomm's vision for how its chip technology can help make smart cars be more than robots on wheels. "There are probably 500 sensors in this car that measure all types of things," Duggal tells me in our exclusive chat in the vehicle. Cars, he says, will be integrated into your digital life, "an extension of your home." This car doesn't have all of the AI tech that was announced for automotive at this year's Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii -- if it did, it might be able to see that Duggal and I are both struggling with the Maui heat and then work out that we need all the cool air it can throw at us. The small camera he points out to me positioned above our heads could perhaps spot that we're visibly perspiring, and the sensors inside and out of the vehicle surely would be able to tell that the internal temperature is undesirable for two people who have just stepped out of the midday sun. At the summit last week, Qualcomm announced major upgrades to two of its automotive platforms, the Snapdragon Ride Elite (for more sophisticated assistive driving) and Snapdragon Cockpit Elite (for digital experiences geared to drivers and passengers). Over the next year, automakers including Mercedes-Benz and Chinese EV maker Li Auto will start to use Qualcomm's latest chip developments to build out their next generation of AI-powered driving and in-car experiences. These could be purely functional -- spotting a safety issue with your car, identifying what maintenance it needs and booking it in to be fixed by finding a spare spot in your calendar. But they could also be whimsical. During the summit, Li Auto demoed a feature that would allow you to capture a picture of the scene you're driving through and have it turned into artwork in the style of Van Gogh. As Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said during his summit keynote, it's hard to think of an automaker the company isn't partnering with these days. It goes to show that car manufacturers are betting big on these AI-powered conveniences being an essential factor in people's buying decisions. Duggal described the result of the Li Auto demo as "beautiful." When I ask him what AI features he most hopes automakers will take advantage of when they start to use the Snapdragon Ride Elite and Cockpit Elite platforms, he points to creative experiences such as this that bridge the worlds inside and outside the car. "People have a lot of memories when they go on trips, when they are on a vacation, when they spend time with their family, and it's very difficult to capture those things," he says. The car could easily ask you whether you want to capture special moments on the road and record them for posterity, he says. The brilliance of generative AI, Duggal says, is that it's "finally allowed the machine to speak to the human." Until the artificial intelligence embedded in your car gets to know you, there will be a certain amount of it asking you questions by seeing if you want to do things on repeat -- playing the same playlist every time you commute or knowing that you like to stop for caffeine on your way to work and always routing you via your favorite coffee shop, for example. "The customer will be included in the conversation," Duggal says. "It's kind of like learning like, hey, every time something happens and I like it, I would like to reinforce that behavior." But speaking to you doesn't just mean adding to the clamor in your head by pestering you about your preferences, it means anticipating what you want and doing it before you even need to ask. "When AI is effective is when it's just operating in the background and you're not even aware of it," says CCS Insight CEO Geoff Blaber. If AI works as Qualcomm promises, it wouldn't add to our mental load, but carry it for us. As much as it sounds like there's plenty AI can do for the car, it also seems that there's plenty the car can do for AI. "The car is going to make AI much more relevant, much faster," Duggal says. "That environment is very rich, it's very noisy, but it's also very powerful in terms of what you can learn," he adds. The sheer amount of inputs in a vehicle and data it gathers will allow new use cases to spring up. Duggal gives the example of a car noticing that a teenager, who has only recently learned to drive, is repeatedly distracted when reversing out of the garage. The car could take note and inform the teen's parents. Yes, it's snitching, but it's the kind of potentially life-saving snitching that parents would love. AI is changing cars so fast that it's basically "overnight," Duggal says. Not my car. It's a 2008 Toyota that came to me via my parents and my brother, and it's not about to benefit from AI. It's from a different era of cars, one in which software-driven experiences, never mind AI, didn't factor into carmakers' decisions at all. That's just not the case anymore -- it's evident in the giant dashboard display that stretches out in front of me in the BMW i5 that while I've been driving about in my old beat-up banger, a shift has occurred. It is, as Duggal points out, "not incremental." The speed at which this is all happening is something that came up frequently at the summit -- especially as it involves automakers, which aren't known for their sharp pace of change. "They have all moved towards software and being software-led companies pretty quickly for what is a slow-moving market," Blaber says. A couple of years ago during the global chip shortage sparked by the pandemic, car companies had to halt production and sales of new vehicles. It's something that never would've happened in five or ten years before, when automakers weren't reliant on silicon supply chains. I've always viewed cars from a utilitarian perspective -- safely getting me from A to B is about all I ask of them. Being in the i5 shows gives me another perspective. As I sit and have a game of Uno with the screen on the dash in between meetings and take a selfie with one of the internal cameras, I see the potential for fun. Qualcomm's vision is to take this to the next level. Zoned audio could allow each passenger (and the driver) to have a personalized experience based on their own preferences and what they're doing on their journey. The in-car cameras will recognize people, so will know if they've traveled in the vehicle before and remember their preferences, Duggal says. This is what I think he means when he says the car will be an extension of your home. There will be a level of comfort added when the car can anticipate your preferences and be ready to welcome you back on board. "They're presenting a vision," says Blaber of Qualcomm's big auto AI push. "Whether or not we get there, the reality is that the car is becoming heavily software defined." As fast as this is happening and as exciting as the vision is, it doesn't feel entirely accessible. It seems like a luxury experience -- one that will delight the i5 owners of this world within the next 18 months or so, but will remain a pipe dream for secondhand Toyota owners such as me. I point this out to Nakul, but he believes that AI will infiltrate cars of all prices and won't be a feature just for those who can afford a luxury vehicle. "There isn't really a correlation with people who will appreciate it and the cost involved," he says. Qualcomm has developed different solutions for different price tags, he adds. Each platform has enough power to support artificial intelligence. Plus the company signs long contracts with carmakers so the platform will continue to be supported -- maybe even long enough for people like me to take advantage. Each of Qualcomm's auto partners, whether it's Li Auto, Mercedes, Rivian or General Motors, are all very different and will use artificial intelligence in their own ways. "The possibilities with the car are just so many," Duggal says. Everyone should be able to experience them, he adds.

Qualcomm's next AI frontier is... your car

Qualcomm thinks smart cars will work a lot like smartphones, and that means AI Qualcomm has historically been quiet about its automotive aspirations, preferring to focus attention on its Snapdragon mobile and laptop processor offerings. That might be changing. The company flew me to its Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit on Maui to see its latest Snapdragon Elite chips, and this year it's all about automotive. The Snapdragon Digital Chassis has been powering cars for a couple of years, but now Qualcomm is honking its Elite horn with Snapdragon Ride Elite and Snapdragon Cockpit Elite systems on a chip. And when Qualcomm says 'Elite,' it means power and AI. AI is coming to cars in a big way. I don't just mean self-driving AI, though that's certainly a big part of Qualcomm's technology. The new Snapdragon Ride Elite chipset can manage up to 40 different sensor types, including radar, LiDAR, cameras, microphones, and infrared. It will use AI to manage all of that data and assist with driving. Qualcomm suggests the Ride Elite will be able to handle Level 3 and Level 4 automated driving, which means you'll still need to keep your hands on the wheel, or at least close to it. Qualcomm AI means much more than driving automation. There will be new features tailor-made for an in-car experience, though a lot of what Qualcomm is showing off right now sounds like smartphone AI transported to the vehicle. You'll be able to use AI to set a reminder, or it might find the closest Starbucks if it thinks you need some caffeine. Your kids can ask for last-minute homework help on the way to school. Some of those sensors managed by Snapdragon will be pointed inside the car. Qualcomm imagines car makers using infrared cameras to not only detect the number of occupants, but also to read our body positions and even facial expressions. This technology is similar to Apple's FaceID, which also uses infrared cameras to read the contours of your face. Once the AI is aware of the passengers, it can help with safety features, like making sure you don't leave pets or small children behind by accident. It will detect if you start to fall asleep and help keep you alert. It might also detect if your children in the back are asleep, and quiet the music and road alerts in their zone. Zones will be a big part of the next generation of automobile cabins. Using AI, Qualcomm says the Snapdragon will be able to direct sound environments, climate changes, and other customizations only at one passenger or another. You might listen to music as you drive, while your passenger watches a movie and the kids in the backseat play games. All of that will happen in the car, and Qualcomm imagines a car that has door-to-door displays. The new Snapdragon Cockpit Elite platform can drive up to 16 4K displays. Some of those will be your instrument gauge, your cockpit controls, and your rearview camera. Other displays will offer entertainment and controls to all of your passengers. Overkill? Maybe not. The most interesting partner to appear with Qualcomm during the automotive keynote at the Snapdragon Summit was Epic Games. Epic has ported its Unreal Engine to cars. The same software that provides the backbone for some of the best video games, including Fortnite, Cyberpunk 2077, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. RIvian is using Unreal Engine on its console displays for maps, vehicle status, and pretty much everything else, and it looks unreal. Unreal Engine is great at rendering a 3D environment, so it makes an obvious fit for maps, looking at a diagnostic view of your car, and controlling the climate. This Halloween, Rivian owners have been treated to car costumes that make the interior look like K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider or the DeLorean from Back to the Future. You can't drive with the costume on, but it still looks fantastic and is fun to show off. I still worry about the future of cars without physical buttons and controls, because I personally don't have the dexterity to tap tiny touchscreen buttons while I'm driving. Thankfully, I won't have to worry about touching controls, because the car's AI will handle everything. I don't need to twist the temperature dial, I can just say "I'm hot" and the car will turn on the air conditioner. If my friend in the back says "I'm getting cold," it will warm their zone. With intelligent AI assistance, I'll be able to ask for anything that used to have its own button. I'll just say 'play Chappell Roan;' or 'turn on my emergency lights.' Of course, relying on voice for control presents a new set of problems, especially for folks who have difficulties speaking, or an accent the car finds unfamiliar. Will the car know how Chappell Roan pronounces her name? I wish I could tell you much more about what AI will do in your car, but we really don't know yet. Qualcomm makes the brains, but it relies on car makers and software developers to make the thoughts. When Qualcomm launches a new chipset, we get one or two solid examples of what the future can hold, but we need to wait for RIvian, Mercedes, and myriad Chinese electric car makers like Great Wall Motors and Li Auto to develop and evolve the features. Hearing from Li Auto, Rivian and Mercedes at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit, it's clear that what excites these car makers the most is the way Snapdragon Elite chipsets will make it easier to update a car's software and features. The entire software update process is going to change for cars. Today, updating car software is a complicated process that requires a smartphone connection/ Premium electric cars from Rivian and Tesla get software updates and major new features over-the-air, thanks to always-on connectivity and powerful processing. That same concept is coming to more cars in the future, and when all of your car controls are based in software, that could mean you step into an entirely new vehicle after an overnight update. Do you get annoyed when Apple updates your iPhone and suddenly your photo gallery looks totally different? Wait until that happens to your Mercedes cockpit. If it sounds like cars are getting dangerously close to being like smartphones, you don't know the half of it. Apps are coming to cars in a big way, and not just the apps you'd expect. Sure, there will be games you can play in the car. Angry Birds was on Qualcomm's list of car apps, and Epic says Fortnite is a popular request from car customers. But Qualcomm also imagines your car will be a space for productivity. You'll run Zoom meetings in your car and see your participants on the dashboard. When you drive by a billboard for something you want, you'll open Amazon on your dash to buy it. If you want to stop for the night, open Booking.com through your car, not your phone, and then your car AI will automatically map its way to your hotel room. You can even buy new additional software features through the car. Right now, Tesla owners can pay extra to buy the contentious Full Self Driving software update, but in the future, more cars will offer software updates and new features for an additional fee. You might start with a base model car, then after a year decide you want to pay for something more premium, and it will only take a software update to give you more. Qualcomm still needs car makers to build upon its vision in order to realize an AI future that will be useful for cars, but GM, BMW, Mercedes and Rivian were all present for the Snapdragon Ride Elite and Cockpit Elite chipset launch. Rivian wouldn't comment on when the Elite chips would power its cars, and it also wouldn't comment on what chipset the upcoming Rivian R3 will use. That car is launching in the right time frame to get Elite Qualcomm status. Reps from BMW told me to look out for an all new vehicle at CES 2025.

Qualcomm Revs Up Connected-Car Ambitions at Snapdragon Summit

WAILEA, Hawaii -- For most of its existence, Qualcomm has focused on chips for some of the smallest gadgets people use. But the second day of its Snapdragon Summit here saw Qualcomm making a bid to center itself in the largest gadgets most people buy: cars. "Today, we give you a glimpse into the future of the car," Nakul Duggal, Qualcomm's group general manager for automotive, industrial, embedded IoT, and cloud computing, said in a keynote. "It is becoming a seamless extension of our digital lives." The hardware part of that involves two platforms built on the Oryon processor architecture that Qualcomm unveiled at last year's summit: Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite. Cockpit handles dashboard and in-car experiences like navigation, entertainment, and climate control, while Ride does the work of assisted and eventually autonomous driving. Qualcomm's announcement notes that automakers can also order a unified SoC configuration that folds into both platforms. "The Elite tier brings unmatched AI into the cockpit," said Duggal, who ticked off its features: a 3x increase in CPU performance over the previous Snapdragon Digital Chassis platform, a 12x increase in NPU performance, support for up to 16 high-resolution displays and the ability to process inputs from more than 40 sensors inside and outside the cabin. Platforms and Partnerships Qualcomm has lined up a wide range of automakers to use its automotive technology, but Tuesday's presentation only had one US-market manufacturer backing the new platforms: Mercedes-Benz, which has already leaned heavily into digital dashboard experiences. "The Snapdragon Digital Chassis enables an open, scalable, and upgradable platform for new vehicles," Chief Software Officer Magnus Östberg said in a recorded video. He explained that Mercedes is building its own MB.OS on that foundation so that it can maintain control over the customer experience and protect customer privacy. In-person testimonials from automakers for Qualcomm's automotive aspirations came from executives with two Chinese manufacturers, Li Auto and Great Wall Motor. In a Q&A after the keynote, Duggal suggested that cheaper versions of the new Elite platforms would come later: "The architecture that we have built for Elite actually scales all the way down to the lowest tier of SOCs." That post-keynote session also included a panel featuring Rivian software-development lead Wassym Bensaid. That EV manufacturer has not endorsed the new Elite platforms, but Bensaid had good things to say about how Qualcomm's subsystems provide a "rich, connected experience" for customers and make it easy to improve its cars with over-the-air updates. "The vehicle gets better and better over time," he said. Qualcomm doesn't plan on doing all this alone; its news Tuesday included the announcement of a multi-year partnership with Google. "We're excited about the future this software-defined platform will unlock," Gretchen Effgen, Google's director of global automotive partnerships, said in a brief onstage appearance that did not yield specifics about how this partnership will work. Why AI? Qualcomm's vision of what AI could do for drivers also felt short on specifics. The keynote and subsequent demonstrations delivered a trunkful of concepts but not a clear sense of the proper role of AI assistance when a driver's primary task has to remain safely operating the car. "Imagine asking your AI assistant anything, anytime, anywhere and getting instant, accurate, personalized responses," said Mark Granger, Qualcomm's senior director of product management, in the post-keynote session. "Wouldn't that be nice?" But while the Snapdragon Cockpit Elite platform seems to have more than enough processing power to handle multiple tasks concurrently, the brains of human drivers are not always as agile. Some of the scenarios Qualcomm showed off should invite skepticism over whether these were actual problems that need to be solved for people while they're still behind the wheel unless the company can unlock fully autonomous driving, where Qualcomm has no less work to do than other developers, even Google's groundbreaking Waymo subsidiary. See, for example, the demo I saw in a mock dashboard Tuesday afternoon, matching a goofy exhibit I saw at CES: The car reminds you that today is a friend's birthday, after which it offers to send a digital card to your pal illustrated with art generated by an on-device version of Stable Diffusion. (Those demo stations also included an exhibit of a car offering subscriptions to unlock additional features at rates from $6 to $35 a month. To date, drivers have found that kind of proposition not much more appealing than square wheels.) On the other hand, having the car's digital brain look for nearby parking after you set a downtown museum as your destination seems a reasonable application -- although not necessarily one that would demand AI-grade processing. The same goes for a suggestion that the AI system could make sure a driver doesn't leave a baby or a pet in the car -- a serious risk that non-AI systems can already guard against. Security and Privacy Concerns The nod to privacy in the remarks from Mercedes' Östberg was one of the only mentions of that concern in the onstage presentation Tuesday morning. Drivers would be forgiven for wanting more, considering the auto industry's awful record on that front -- from paper-thin privacy policies to manufacturers selling driving-pattern information to data brokers for insultingly low prices to Tesla employees peeking at video from the external cameras of cars. When I asked about that at a media roundtable late Tuesday afternoon, Duggal first punted that to automakers. "It's probably less a question of privacy architecture at the chip level and more a question of how data is managed by the OEM," he said. But then he added that the ability of Qualcomm's platform to run AI models locally instead of sending customer data to cloud services for processing could reduce people's exposure -- if manufacturers took care to anonymize any data that does get uploaded. (Reminder: Congress has yet to pass a comprehensive privacy bill that might place guardrails around the practices of automakers and other companies.) Asked about how long Qualcomm would provide software updates and support to drivers, Duggal had a more specific answer: at least 10 years. "I think if the automakers want us to do more, we can," he said. Will Drivers Notice? The technology shown off here will take time before it shows up in anybody's driveway. When asked about timeframes, Duggal said one of the manufacturers that showed up onstage would ship these processors in 18 months. And whenever that happens, individual drivers may not even realize that Qualcomm had any part in making their ride more connected and, hopefully, smarter. The car industry isn't like Qualcomm's traditional market of smartphones or its newer business in laptops; car makers generally don't see fit to include opening credits in their dashboard interfaces. One example of that was parked outside the exhibit spaces at Qualcomm's venue Tuesday: a Rivian R1S SUV running a software platform based on Google's Android Automotive on a Qualcomm 8155 processor. While some interface elements hinted at the lineage of this software, nothing about the experience revealed Qualcomm's role. But with the R1S set to park and Rivian's "Halloween Mode" activated, this vehicle was able to give a shout-out to a connected-car package that never reached an assembly line: the KITT software agent from the 1980s TV show Knight Rider. Disclosure: Qualcomm covered my airfare and lodging, along with that of many invited attendees to this event.

Your Car Is Qualcomm's Next AI Frontier: It's Getting Smarter, Safer and More Fun

Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand. Your next car is going to be much smarter and safer than the one you're driving around in right now. It's also likely going to be more fun, offering a personalized riding experience that will differ depending on whether you're the designated driver or a passenger princess. How? With a little help from artificial intelligence. The engine was once the primary factor determining the relative greatness of your car, but a shift is underway that will see you focus more keenly on what software your car is running, and what it's using to run it. That's where Qualcomm comes in. On Tuesday the company debuted its Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite platforms, at its Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii. The former is designed around providing digital experiences to drivers and their passengers, whereas the latter is all about providing more sophisticated assistive driving. Qualcomm, which is best known for making smartphone chipsets, has only been in the auto game for a few years. "There's so many people that told us we'll not succeed in automotive," said the company's CEO Cristiano Amon during the Snapdragon Summit keynote on Monday. But Qualcomm did what it does best by bringing its most comprehensive tech to the table, and is now partnering with almost every major car manufacturer, he added. The latest platforms both run on Qualcomm's Oryon CPU, which the company announced last year to power its mobile platforms and which has now been adapted for auto. What this means is a three-times improvement in CPU and 12-times improvement in AI performance compared to Qualcomm's platform from last year, which equates to enhanced in-car safety and other in-vehicle experiences. Responsible for the boost in AI performance is the new neural processing unit, which can handle inputs from many different sensors and data sources at once. For example it can juggle navigation, in-car entertainment and messaging simultaneously in a smart and seamless way across screens and audio outputs. It uses context to understand who is in the car, and it won't read out a message that mentions someone if that person is present. Very discreet. Another improvement Qualcomm has brought to its car tech is advanced support for zonal audio, which creates a kind of bubble around each person in the car that gives them their own entertainment or productivity zone. For example, the driver might get audio alerts about road conditions that won't be heard by other passengers who are watching a movie or gaming. One major benefit of AI-assisted vehicles is that the technology can provide extra eyes and ears to keep you safe on your drive, as well as advice about how to rectify any safety issues. Different elements of Qualcomm's tech play into this. The GPU, for example, has integrated functional safety features that can support the display of safety focused information. To keep the driver safe, cars these days must be able to synthesize data drawn in from cameras and sensors in real time, and here the NPU once again plays a role. The Snapdragon Ride Elite is expected to have six times the computing power of its predecessor, which should make the car safer and more responsive should a dangerous situation occur. The platform is designed to support more than 40 sensors in total, including multiple 16-megapixel cameras outside of the car, while processing all the information centrally and simultaneously. It can adjust the visibility according to the information it's receiving, accounting for conditions from darkness to direct sunlight. It's tricky to know right now which auto companies will make use of Qualcomm's updated tech. As Amon points out, almost every car company is partnering with Qualcomm these days in recognition of the paradigm shift toward connected cars, but the chip is flexible and can be tailored by each carmaker to take advantage of the features they're most interested in. Our cars are becoming more personalized than ever with the help of AI. They're evolving into mini smart homes on wheels, and in many ways it feels like Qualcomm's first baby steps in the auto world are quickly turning into bigger and bigger strides as it shows everyone what they've been missing in terms of safety and fun.

Qualcomm accelerates automotive AI with Snapdragon's latest chips

Why it matters: While smart glasses and other wearables have been getting a great deal of attention lately, the market poised to be the largest and most impactful new category of personal devices is cars. With the shift to software-defined vehicles (SDVs) and ongoing advances in assisted and autonomous driving, the automotive industry is on the verge of becoming the "next big thing" for the tech sector. Unsurprisingly, just as AI has been instrumental in advancing other device categories, it's now beginning to make a significant impact in the car market. The latest example comes from Qualcomm, which recently unveiled next-gen versions of its automotive-focused chips at the Snapdragon Summit in Maui. The Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite are designed for infotainment and assisted/autonomous driving features in premium vehicles and are expected to start sampling in 2025. Both chips and their respective software platforms are part of Qualcomm's Snapdragon Digital Chassis, which debuted in 2022. Building on the company's previous automotive efforts, these new chips feature the Oryon CPU architecture. Oryon represents a major leap in performance and power efficiency compared to previous Qualcomm CPUs. It's also a key component of the Snapdragon X Elite chips for PCs, released earlier this year. A second-generation version of Oryon is also part of the new Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile CPU for smartphones. In terms of raw performance, the improvements over previous generations are substantial. Both the Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite offer a 3x increase in CPU performance, a 3x increase in Adreno GPU performance, and a remarkable 12x boost in the performance of Qualcomm's Hexagon NPU compared to its earlier automotive chips. The result is a set of car-focused processors that can enable significantly more AI capabilities within vehicles, enhancing both infotainment and assisted driving features. From a cockpit experience perspective, this performance boost means the potential to build much more advanced voice-based personal assistants, allowing for more intuitive interactions with the vehicle and its features. The increased processing power across the CPU, GPU, and NPU allows vehicles equipped with these chips to handle larger and more capable large language models. This could enable not just a voice-based interface (which in cars is somewhat underutilized and not that great for the most part), but agents that could assist with tasks like learning your driving and music preferences, or automatically rescheduling a dinner reservation if you're stuck in traffic. The Cockpit Elite chip can support up to 16 high-resolution displays throughout the car, providing a wide range of entertainment and information options, along with separate audio feeds for different passengers or areas of the vehicle. From a driving perspective, the new Ride Elite supports more than 40 multimodal sensors, including 20 high-resolution cameras, lidar, and other sensors to enable safer driving, whether the driver is in control or using assisted or semi-autonomous features. Once again, the enhanced processing power of these new chips allows vehicles to run more sophisticated AI models, which should result in better and more reliable autonomous driving capabilities. To Qualcomm's credit, they don't try to claim full autonomy - a mistake that many in the automotive industry made well before the capability is available - but instead focus on making the experience of human-monitored driving as good as it can be. Speaking of safety, as with previous Snapdragon Digital Chassis components, the new Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Ride Elite support the critical functional safety standards, including ASIL-D and ISO 26262. These standards are essential for ensuring the safe operation of software-defined vehicles in the event of a digital component failure or software crash. The obvious benefits of incorporating these chips into future cars include extending the AI computing capabilities we've seen in PCs and smartphones into vehicles. However, beyond that, this announcement underscores Qualcomm's continued efforts to diversify its product line and revenue streams. While the company has been providing communications and telematics solutions to carmakers for over 20 years, its entry into automotive computing is a more recent development. Given that it typically takes about three years from when a chip or critical component is introduced to when it appears in vehicles, Qualcomm expects cars with these new chips to be available by 2026, thanks to the groundwork laid with the Snapdragon Digital Chassis platform. Qualcomm's previous efforts and these new advancements will begin to impact the company's business results starting next year. With high-level partnerships announced with BMW, GM, and Rivian at this event, the company's future in the auto market looks promising for revenue diversification and growth. From a product standpoint, this announcement highlights how Qualcomm's investment in Oryon CPU technology is now being leveraged across multiple areas. From PCs to smartphones to cars and possibly other devices in the future, Qualcomm is maximizing the potential of its IP in a highly efficient manner. By integrating a similar NPU architecture across these categories and developing its cloud-based Qualcomm AI Hub software portal to encourage AI-powered app development, the company is opening up intriguing possibilities. Imagine, for example, computer vision models originally built for smartphones ending up being used for automotive sensing applications. It's an interesting thought. All told, these announcements paint a more comprehensive picture of what Qualcomm's strategy is and how AI is now weaving a link throughout most of its efforts. While some might argue the company is capitalizing on the generative AI hype and is simply being opportunistic, the comprehensive approach they presented suggests they are building toward a future they see as imminent and very real. Bob O'Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, LLC, a market research firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. You can follow Bob on Twitter @bobodtech

A smarter ride awaits, as Qualcomm's Snapdragon automovie chips get better AI, new Oryon CPU

xQualcomm brings its Orion CPU, AI improvements to its automotive chipsets The push for smarter AI extends beyond phones, laptops and other personal computing devices. Cars are getting smarter, too, and the latest entry into Qualcomm's Digital Chasis line of chips for connected cars and smart cars looks to speed up that process. Qualcomm unveiled two new automotive-geared chips today (October 22) -- the Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite. The former system-on-chip controls digital experiences within the car itself -- think climate control, infotainment, navigation and other features you'd expect to have in a connected vehicle. Meanwhile, Snapdragon Ride Elite is built to support autonomous driving. While these are two separate chips, Qualcomm has built them so that automakers can combine the two into a single system-on-chip -- ideal for cars with self-driving features. Like the Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile processor introduced for smartphones earlier this week, both the Cockpit Elite and Ride Elite chipsets now use Qualcomm's custom-built Oryon CPU. That should result in a 3x boost to performance over the previous generation of Qualcomm's automotive chips. The performance improvements means you'll be able to stream music in your car, run navigational software and field hands-free cars all at once without any dip in performance. The Hexagon neural processing unit in Qualcomm's automotive chips is getting a boost, too -- it's 12x faster than the previous generation, Qualcomm says. That will translate to more personalized assistance for drivers and passengers alike, with the AI features able to perform tasks like managing climate control based on your preferences or detecting where there's parking. Ultimately, a lot of the neural engine features appear geared to supporting autonomous driving, particularly with the Snapdragon Ride Elite chip. Those features include real-time driver monitoring and enhanced object detection. The Oryon CPU and neural engine improvements highlight the changes to Snapdragon's new Elite chips for automotive, but they're not the only improvements. The chipsets benefit from an enhanced image signal processor that promises better visuals even in bad weather. Forty multimodal sensors and 20 high-resolution camera sensors provide 360-degree monitoring, which includes the interior of the car. Qualcomm says the chips are configurable so that car makers can use them in different tiers of vehicles. That flexible architecture should also speed up deployment, according to Qualcomm, so that you and I can enjoy new innovations to our rides faster than ever before. You will have to wait until you get to experience any cars that benefit from the improvements to the Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Ride Elite chips. Qualcomm plans to make the chips available for sampling in 2025. I'm attending the Snapdragon Summit this week as a guest of Qualcomm, and I'm hoping for hands-on opportunities that will demonstrate the benefits of the new Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Ride Elite chips for drivers and passengers. Stick with Tom's Guide for additional updates.

Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon Elite platforms for automotive

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Qualcomm unveiled its Snapdragon Elite platforms for automotive applications at its Snapdragon Summit event today. Powered by Qualcomm Oryon -- the company's fastest central processing unit (CPU) -- these new platforms are the latest additions to the Snapdragon Digital Chassis (first introduced in 2022) portfolio. They're designed to bring intelligence to next-generation vehicles. Automakers have the option to utilize Snapdragon Cockpit Elite to power advanced digital experiences and Snapdragon Ride Elite to power automated driving capabilities. Through its unique flexible architecture, automakers will also have an option to seamlessly combine both digital cockpit and automated driving functionalities on the same SoC - an innovative capability available on Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions. "Qualcomm Technologies remains at the forefront of innovation with platforms like Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Ride Elite, as the automotive industry evolves towards centralized computing, Qualcomm software defined vehicles and AI-driven architectures," said Nakul Duggal, group manager, automotive, industrial, and cloud at Qualcomm, in a statement. "With our strongest performing compute, graphics and AI capabilities, coupled with industry leading power efficiency and cutting-edge software enablement for digital cockpits and automated driving, these new Elite Snapdragon automotive platforms address the industry's needs for higher compute levels, empowering automakers to redefine automotive experiences for their customers." Ana Arnold, who works in product and technology marketing at Qualcomm, said in a product briefing that software-defined technology and AI are driving rapid change in cars. She noted hundreds of millions of vehicles already use Qualcomm tech on the road. The new platforms deliver versatility for both autonomous driving and in-cabin car systems -- or both through platforms that combine the different chips, Arnold said. Unified architecture with higher AI performance The dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU), designed for multimodal AI, offers a 12-times performance boost over previous cockpit platforms, enabling real-time external environment and cabin data processing. This advance facilitates live decision-making, adaptive responses, and proactive assistance, ensuring personalized in-cabin car experiences. Mark Granger, senior director of product management, said in a press briefing that the Snapdragon Cockpit Elite is focused on the interior cabin space, like the dashboard. The Snapdragon Ride Elite, meanwhile, is focused on ADAS, or Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, and autonomous vehicles. "We see the advent of large language models and multimodal models that are adept at running on the edge," Granger said. "So we're very excited with what we see as a huge leap in performance and capability." To date, LLMs have had real challenges understanding and responding to to Chinese and Japanese speakers. The new tech can now address this. Granger said the company is not yet disclosing the exact amount of TOPS performance when it comes to AI processing. Equipped with transformer accelerators and vector engines, along with mixed precision support, the NPU in Snapdragon Ride Elite is designed to deliver low-latency, highly accurate, and efficient end-to-end transformers, maintaining optimal power and performance. The heterogeneous platform seamlessly runs multiple applications without performance loss, offering exceptional concurrency and multitasking for numerous cameras, sensors, rich user experiences and advanced AI-enabled audio with virtualization. Automakers can create configurable software-defined vehicles (SDVs) for all tiers, providing flexibility and scalability while simplifying vehicle architecture. This architecture results in accelerated deployment schedules, ensuring customers can enjoy the latest innovations and features more quickly than before. Qualcomm said the new chips are engineered to deliver exceptional performance while minimizing energy consumption. That helps ensure that vehicles operate smarter and longer. The solution is a combination of intelligent power management hardware and software that balances core utilization and application runtime. The chips are also designed for context-aware applications. This platform is designed to enable hands-free, unsupervised automated driving that anticipates needs, along with real-time driver monitoring and enhanced object detection for a smoother, more confident ride. Its improved Adreno GPU targeting to deliver a three-times performance boost with advanced rendering capabilities, meeting demands for gaming, multimedia, and dynamic driver information. The platforms are also designed to meet automotive safety standards for ASIL-D systems with a dedicated safety island controller and robust hardware architecture for isolation and interference-free operation, helping to ensure reliable quality-of-service for specific ADAS functions, as well as comfort and confidence from drivers and passengers. Purpose-built for the industry's shift to SDVs, the elite-tier platform is designed to take an end-to-end approach for enhanced safety, security, and upgradeability through the unified software framework that emphasizes software reuse; designed to help automakers accelerate feature development via a cloud-based workbench, streamlining software development for continuous improvement and reducing time to market for new features and services. The automotive platforms also feature a powerful, efficient camera system with an advanced Image Signal Processor (ISP) for clear, responsive visuals in extreme driving conditions. They support over 40 multimodal sensors, including up to 20 high-resolution cameras for 360-degree coverage and in-cabin monitoring, Arnold said. She noted in-cabin sensors are now important inside the cabin to detect whether a driver is sleepy or not and the car needs to do something about that, like sending an audio alert. Compatible with the latest and upcoming automotive sensors and formats, our platforms use AI-enhanced imaging tools to deliver optimized image quality for both enhanced in-cabin experiences and advanced safety features. The automotive platforms will use Qualcomm's software stack, supporting multiple operating systems. The Snapdragon Ride Elite platform is an end-to-end automated driving system with advanced features like vision perception, sensor fusion, path planning, localization, and complete vehicle control. Snapdragon Cockpit Elite offers support for rich multimedia features, on-device AI with fully integrated edge orchestrator, optimized gaming and advanced 3D graphics for rich user experiences, and comes with safety, security and long-term support (API compatibility) features built into the design. The Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite will be available for sampling in 2025. As for the average cycle time on design cycles for cars, Granger said the time has certainly come down over many years (it used to take five years to get new parts designed into cars) and continues to accelerate, Granger said.

Qualcomm's latest chipsets could power your next car | Digital Trends

It's been a big year for Qualcomm. Alongside its massive launch into laptop chips through the Snapdragon X Elite series, Qualcomm is now entering the automotive space. The company has announced the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite platforms at its annual Snapdragon Summit, which it flew me out to attend. The two platforms are designed for different purposes, and can be used togetheror separately. The Snapdragon Cockpit Elite is built for in-vehicle infotainment systems and services, while the Snapdragon Ride Elite is built to power autonomous vehicle systems, including all the cameras and sensors that go into those systems. Recommended Videos At the heart of both platforms is the Qualcomm Oryon CPU, which is the same CPU that's built into Snapdragon-powered smartphones. The result? Vehicles with software running on the Snapdragon Cockpit Elite could theoretically run as quick as your phone -- that would be a huge improvement for most vehicles. That's more important than ever as carmakers start to move toward building software-defined vehicles, or SDVs, in an attempt to be more like Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid. Software support is important here. In the smartphone space, most Snapdragon chips run Android. In the PC space, they run Windows. But in the automotive world, there are dozens of in-car operating systems, each a little different. Qualcomm says that the platform will support all of these operating systems, though we'll have to wait and see if it results in a performance hit. It'll support future vehicles with more displays too. Qualcomm says that the Snapdragon Cockpit Elite can drive up to 16 displays with a 4K resolution, which is pretty huge. AI support is important here too, especially when it comes to the Snapdragon Ride Elite, which is designed to process self-driving tech. Both platforms are designed with a dedicated neural processing unit, with the Snapdragon Ride Elite built specifically for low-latency and highly accurate processing. Low latency is important -- the platforms support over 40 multimodal sensors, which includes up to 20 cameras to ensure 360-degree coverage, plus in-cabin monitoring. And the platforms are designed to do all of this efficiently. That's important too -- the less power being used for processing, the more that can go into ensuring a decent range. Car software is notoriously slow, often taking seconds to respond to touch and load menus. That's not only annoying -- it's dangerous, representing more time that you spend looking at a screen when you should be looking at the road. As we head into a world of more and more autonomous tech, better processing is increasingly important. Qualcomm says Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite will be "available for sampling" in 2025. That doesn't mean we'll see cars with the platforms in 2025 -- it means automakers will be able to get the chips to start testing with. It could be some time before we can actually buy a car with one of these platforms, though, hopefully, they'll be available sooner rather than later.

Qualcomm Focuses on Automotive Features with its Snapdragon Ride and Cockpit Elite Platforms - Phandroid

While most Snapdragon fans have had their eyes set on the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (and for good reason), Qualcomm isn't putting all its eggs into one basket - in fact, the company recently unveiled its new Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Ride Elite platforms, which are designed for more intuitive driving experiences. Both platforms come equipped with Qualcomm's own Oryon CPU, which is also found on the Snapdragon 8 Elite. With that said, the Snapdragon Cockpit Elite is designed to give passengers more immersive infotainment experiences, and the Ride Elite focuses on running entire vehicle systems. Qualcomm says that these new platforms are ideal for manufacturers who want to focus on software-defined vehicles (aka SDVs), and want to give passengers a more "futuristic" riding and driving experience somewhat akin to modern electric vehicles these days, with an added boost of AI. The chips are also capable of supporting different operating systems, making them a bit different than their Android-focused counterparts, for example. This means better software experiences which will replace clunky and outdated default UIs in most current vehicle infotainment systems. There's also a focus on safety and complex multimodal sensors, with as much as 20 cameras for simultaneous 360-degree monitoring, and better power efficiency as well. Nakul Duggal, group general manager for automotive, industrial and cloud at Qualcomm comments: Qualcomm Technologies remains at the forefront of innovation with platforms like Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite, as the automotive industry evolves towards centralized computing, software-defined vehicles and AI-driven architectures... With our strongest performing compute, graphics and AI capabilities, coupled with industry leading power efficiency and cutting-edge software enablement for digital cockpits and automated driving, these new elite Snapdragon automotive platforms address the industry's needs for higher compute levels, empowering automakers to redefine automotive experiences for their customers. We can expect Qualcomm's new automotive platforms to be available for sampling next year, with big names such as Li Auto and Mercedes-Benz AG expected to integrate the new Snapdragon systems into their upcoming cars.

Qualcomm Races Ahead in the Evolution of Software-Defined Vehicles with New Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite Platforms

* and select Snapdragon Elite tier automotive platforms for their future commercialized vehicles. * New Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite platforms debut with Qualcomm Oryon CPU, now tailored for automotive. * Platforms are targeting 3x faster CPU and up to 12x stronger AI performance* for in-vehicle experiences compared to previous flagship generation. Today at Snapdragon Summit, unveiled its most powerful automotive platforms. Powered by Qualcomm Oryon(TM) CPU - Qualcomm Technologies' fastest CPU now tailored for automotive - these Elite tier automotive platforms are the latest addition to the Snapdragon® Digital Chassis(TM) Solution portfolio, designed to bring unmatched power and intelligence to next-generation vehicles. Automakers have the option to utilize Snapdragon® Cockpit Elite to power advanced digital experiences and Snapdragon Ride(TM) Elite to power automated driving capabilities. Through a unique flexible architecture, automakers will also have an option to seamlessly combine both digital cockpit and automated driving functionalities on the same SoC - an innovative capability available on Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions. "Qualcomm Technologies remains at the forefront of innovation with platforms like Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite, as the automotive industry evolves towards centralized computing, software-defined vehicles and AI-driven architectures," said , group general manager, automotive, industrial and cloud, "With our strongest performing compute, graphics and AI capabilities, coupled with industry leading power efficiency and cutting-edge software enablement for digital cockpits and automated driving, these new elite Snapdragon automotive platforms address the industry's needs for higher compute levels, empowering automakers to redefine automotive experiences for their customers." Accelerated AI Performance: The dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU), designed for multimodal AI, is targeting a 12x performance boost over previous cockpit platforms,* enabling real-time external environment and cabin data processing. This advancement facilitates live decision-making, adaptive responses, and proactive assistance, ensuring personalized in-cabin experiences. Equipped with transformer accelerators and vector engines, along with mixed precision support, the NPU in Snapdragon Ride Elite is designed to deliver low-latency, highly accurate, and efficient end-to-end transformers, maintaining optimal power and performance. Flexible, Centralized Processing with Software Virtualization and Multi-OS Support: The heterogeneous platform seamlessly runs multiple applications without performance loss, offering exceptional concurrency and multitasking for numerous cameras, sensors, rich user experiences and advanced AI-enabled audio with virtualization. Automakers can create configurable software-defined vehicles (SDVs) for all tiers, providing flexibility and scalability while simplifying vehicle architecture. This architecture is designed to accelerate deployment schedules, ensuring customers can enjoy the latest innovations and features more quickly than with our prior architectures. The elite-tier automotive platforms also utilize Qualcomm Technologies' comprehensive software stack, supporting hardware virtualization using a Type-1 safe hypervisor with the capability to support multiple guest virtual machines with unique operating systems that operate free from interference, concurrently and independently. Industry-Leading Power Efficiency: Engineered to deliver exceptional performance while minimizing energy consumption and helping ensure that vehicles operate smarter and longer. The solution is a combination of intelligent power management hardware and software that balances core utilization and application runtime. Intuitive Experiences: Engineered to support context-aware applications, the platforms are designed to enable hands-free automated driving that anticipates needs, along with real-time driver monitoring and enhanced object detection for a smoother, more confident ride. Its improved Qualcomm® Adreno(TM) GPU is targeting to deliver a 3x performance boost* with advanced rendering capabilities, meeting demands for gaming, multimedia, and dynamic driver information. Safety-Focused: Designed to meet automotive safety standards for ASIL-D systems with a dedicated safety island controller and robust hardware architecture for isolation and interference-free operation, helping to enable reliable quality-of-service for specific ADAS functions, as well as comfort and confidence from drivers and passengers. Software-Defined: Purpose-built for the industry's shift to SDVs, the elite-tier platforms are designed to take an end-to-end approach for upgradeability through the unified software framework that emphasizes software reuse; designed to help automakers accelerate feature development via a cloud-based workbench, streamlining software development for continuous improvement and reducing time to market for new features and services. Cutting-Edge Camera Subsystem for Safety and Comfort: Our elite-tier automotive platforms feature a powerful, efficient camera system with an advanced Image Signal Processor (ISP) for clear, responsive visuals in extreme driving conditions. They are designed to support over 40 multimodal sensors, including up to 20 high-resolution cameras for 360-degree coverage and in-cabin monitoring. Compatible with the latest and upcoming automotive sensors and formats, our platforms use AI-enhanced imaging tools to deliver optimized image quality for both enhanced in-cabin experiences and advanced features. Automated Driving and AI Software Stack: The Snapdragon Ride Elite platform exemplifies the approach of software virtualization, offering an end-to-end automated driving system with advanced features like vision perception, sensor fusion, path planning, localization, and complete vehicle control all running concurrently, independently and free from interference. Similarly, Snapdragon Cockpit Elite supports rich multimedia features, on-device AI with a fully integrated edge orchestrator, optimized gaming and advanced 3D graphics for rich user experiences. Snapdragon Cockpit Elite is also designed with safety, security and long-term support (API compatibility) features built into the design with the ability to run the instrument cluster, infotainment dash, and multiple passenger instances in independent virtual machines, with the ability to share content and data where needed. The Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite will be available for sampling in 2025. Technology collaborations are underway with leading car manufacturers, including and , who will feature Snapdragon Elite tier automotive platforms in their future commercialized vehicles. "We are incredibly excited for the new Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite solutions and the transformative potential they hold for next-generation vehicles," said Mr. , President of . "The automotive industry is on the cusp of a revolution, leveraging the latest advancements in computing, artificial intelligence, and software to deliver unparalleled experiences for drivers and passengers alike. We look forward to working with Qualcomm Technologies to combine our innovative spirit with these new solutions to redefine in-vehicle experiences." "Qualcomm Technologies stands at the forefront of automotive innovation, and we are pleased to continue our trusted collaboration with them by integrating Snapdragon Cockpit Elite into our future vehicles," said Magnus Östberg, Chief Software Officer, . "This powerful and efficient central compute technology will enable us to provide our customers with an unmatched in-vehicle experience--one that is uniquely tailored, seamlessly connected, and remarkably intuitive." For more information, please visit our product webpage. About Qualcomm Qualcomm relentlessly innovates to deliver intelligent computing everywhere, helping the world tackle some of its most important challenges. Our proven solutions drive transformation across major industries, and our Snapdragon® branded platforms power extraordinary consumer experiences. Building on our nearly 40-year leadership in setting industry standards and creating era-defining technology breakthroughs, we deliver leading edge AI, high-performance, low-power computing, and unrivaled connectivity. Together with our ecosystem partners, we enable next-generation digital transformation to enrich lives, improve businesses, and advance societies. At Qualcomm, we are engineering human progress. includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. , a subsidiary of , operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering and research and development functions and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including our QCT semiconductor business. Snapdragon and Qualcomm branded products are products of and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm patented technologies are licensed by .

Qualcomm Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Ride Elite Automotive Platforms announced

Qualcomm Technologies has introduced its latest automotive platforms powered by the Qualcomm Oryon CPU, marking the fastest CPU tailored for automotive use. These Elite tier platforms belong to the Snapdragon Digital Chassis Solution portfolio and are designed to boost power and intelligence in next-generation vehicles, as showcased at the Snapdragon Summit 2024. Automakers can opt for Snapdragon Cockpit Elite for enhanced digital experiences or Snapdragon Ride Elite for automated driving. These platforms feature a flexible architecture that allows for the integration of both digital cockpit and automated driving functions on a single system-on-chip (SoC) within the Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions. Qualcomm has announced a multi-year collaboration with Google to enhance digital cockpit solutions through generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI). This partnership will leverage technologies from the Snapdragon Digital Chassis, Android Automotive OS, and Google Cloud to create a standardized framework for cockpit development. The Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite platforms will be available for sampling in 2025, allowing automakers to create innovative automotive experiences. Collaborations with leading manufacturers, including Li Auto and Mercedes-Benz AG, are in progress to feature these platforms in future commercial vehicles. Speaking about the new platforms, Nakul Duggal, group general manager, automotive, industrial and cloud at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., said,