The Inside Story on Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

September 1, 2021

Vasanth Waran, Senior Director of Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Qualcomm Technologies leverages its mobile, compute and systems engineering experience to deliver next-gen automotive technologies for telematics, digital cockpit, C-V2X, ADAS and Car-to-Cloud solutions. Their Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platforms deliver personalized in-vehicle experiences with advanced telematics and infotainment capabilities, their Snapdragon Wireless Platforms support multi-gigabit 4G LTE and 5G connectivity, their C-V2X solutions help improve traffic efficiency and road safety, and their Snapdragon Ride Platform is one of the industry’s most scalable and customizable ADAS and autonomous driving platforms.

In an interview with SAE’s Automotive Engineering, Vasanth Waran, Senior Director of Product Management, discusses advanced digital cockpit platforms and how they have become a “central processing hub” for modern vehicles.

AE: What does Qualcomm Automotive see as the most important areas of automotive user experience in the next 3 to 5 years?

Waran: The Automotive industry is on the verge of a huge transformation in the next few years with the ongoing evolution driven by autonomous driving, electrification and vehicle-to-cloud/infrastructure connectivity, and new paradigms such as Mobility as a Service (MaaS). These technologies will have a profound impact on the end user and Qualcomm Technologies is a key cog in this transformation with our leadership in silicon and systems in 5G/C-V2X telematics, as well as Digital Cockpit and ADAS Compute solutions. We see the following as key drivers to the end-user experience:

5G/C-V2X technologies — connectivity is a key element in the evolution of adoption of ADAS/AD. The autonomous car will need lots of data to be transferred to and from the car to enable it to run the ADAS algorithms and also to communicate through C-V2X with other vehicles. And the impact of 5G communications will have far-reaching effects to the end user.
Similarly, the explosion and confluence of compute, safety and infotainment will transform the way users interact with their vehicles and sensors in those vehicles. The Human Machine Interface in a vehicle will be transformed to provide a more seamless and intuitive experience, powered by high-performance compute solutions.
The driver/user of the future can look forward to a driving experience that provides a more distraction- and clutter-free experience, while providing them with the autonomy and safety they need in their vehicles.

AE: The fourth generation of the Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platforms was introduced this year. What are its key advances?

Waran: With every generation of our Cockpit platforms, we have pushed the performance and integration envelope of In-Vehicle Infotainment and Cockpit designs. This time around is no different. We now are expanding our product lifecycle scalability with our Car-to-Cloud (C2C) platform that allows our customers to expand the features, performance and use-cases after the deployment of the vehicle. We are adding compute, machine learning and safety features to integrate additional features such as in-cabin monitoring, driver and passenger personalization and integrated digital assistance in the Cockpit systems. Our platforms also will allow our Tier-1 and OEM customers to create adaptive, intuitive and enhanced

HMIs and UIs [user interfaces] to provide a smooth and immersive audio and visual experience for the passengers.

AE: Are there new technology applications to which Qualcomm is extending its digital cockpit and automotive-grade 5G proficiency?

Waran: Yes, our technologies will enable new applications. For example, our 5G/C-V2X products will help speed the adoption of autonomous driving, and our V2C and V2V product technologies will ramp the adoption of ADAS as well. Similarly, our 5G products will have applications based on best-in-class positioning that allows for localization technologies to grow. The cockpit platforms will enable new intuitive, integrated and contextually safe applications such as passenger-, ambience- and context-based preferences for climate control, driving modes, distraction prevention and distraction-free UIs.