Qualcomm is greatest recognized for the chips and modems inside Android telephones. However in recent times, it is also began promoting a package deal of {hardware} chips, sensors and software program known as Snapdragon Digital Chassis to automakers like GM, Hyundai and Volvo.
Now, it is hoping to capitalize on the hype round generative synthetic intelligence to persuade automakers to purchase extra of those chips and construct new eventualities round them, resembling good assistants that may assist drivers navigate round cities, make reservations and do different day by day computing duties.
Automotive income remains to be a small enterprise for Qualcomm. It reported $1.32 billion in gross sales in its fiscal 2022, or about 3% of the corporate’s general gross sales. However the firm says that it will possibly count on that its chips shall be utilized in forthcoming vehicles over the subsequent few years, and tasks greater than $9 billion in gross sales in 2031.
Qualcomm makes between $200 and $3,000 per automotive that use its chips and software program, officers stated final fall at an investor occasion. The corporate additionally makes $5 per automotive that is related to 5G via licensing charges.
One instance of the corporate’s presence in vehicles: GM’s new electrical $130,000 Cadillac Escalade IQ SUV makes use of Qualcomm chips and software program to assist energy the automobile’s 55-inch dashboard show, in addition to lane-keeping and hands-free driving options beneath GM’s “Extremely Cruise” branding. The SUV additionally notably doesn’t permit customers to reflect their telephones to the leisure system, a function often called Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, which means drivers will work together with GM’s chosen software program interface, growing the significance of the in-car pc expertise.
Qualcomm faces stiff competitors from different chipmakers within the automotive chip enterprise. Laptop-focused chip firms like Intel via its Mobileye subsidiary and Nvidia promote automotive merchandise, along with conventional auto suppliers resembling Continental, NXP Semiconductors and Bosch, that are all vying to produce components and chips that energy dashboards and driver help programs.
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ
GM
This week, Qualcomm demonstrated potential future eventualities that its chips might allow with the help of giant language fashions and generative AI.
In a single instance, Qualcomm confirmed how a automotive assistant might discover a recipe for hen enchiladas and add the elements to a purchasing record. In one other, the automotive pc makes use of Steady Diffusion, a kind of generative AI mannequin, to create and ship an AI-generated birthday card to the driving force’s brother. The demos have been all operating on the automotive’s pc, not a cellphone. The assistant function is a preview of how vehicles might grow to be extra like private computer systems within the coming years. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon sees vehicles as a “new computing platform,” he wrote in a weblog submit this week.
Qualcomm’s demonstration highlights the corporate’s want to be seen as an AI firm, via its low-power smartphone GPUs and AI accelerators. Traders have to date centered on Nvidia’s cloud GPUs, that are used to energy functions like ChatGPT. Whereas the AI growth has tripled rival Nvidia’s inventory to date this yr, Qualcomm is barely up 5% throughout the identical interval.
A brief-term aim for Qualcomm’s language fashions is to create a sensible person information utilizing a big language mannequin that is been educated and fine-tuned on the dense person manuals that include vehicles, stated Nakul Duggal, automotive senior vp at Qualcomm. One other frontier is driver monitoring, or utilizing machine studying to find out if the driving force is distracted or sleeping.
“We’re working with automakers who’re actively going from a flat handbook that you’ve in your glove compartment, to actually including context the place the automotive goes to have the ability to perceive what’s going on,” Duggal stated.
One other frontier for Qualcomm’s platform might be options that may improve the automotive’s software program on the go along with new self-driving capabilities, Duggal stated — which might even be a brand new income stream for automakers.
“The place are you driving? Do you’ve hassle parking? Would you wish to subscribe to that automated parking function that we now have that you have not truly bought, however we will improve over-the-air? Or would you want a free trial for a time frame?” Duggal stated. “There are such a lot of various things that you are able to do upon getting context.”
