World top manufacturer Mercedes-Benz unveiled a partnership with Qualcomm Technologies to propel the development of the next generation of connected vehicles. The organizations are deploying Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions to bring the latest and most digitally advanced capabilities to upcoming Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
The announcement was made on Thursday at the Automotive Tech Investors Day Event.
Both companies have a long-standing technology relationship cut across various technology generations. Mercedes-Benz will now integrate Snapdragon Cockpit Platforms to power digital cockpits and Snapdragon Automotive Connectivity Platforms for telematics systems in upcoming vehicles.
With the Snapdragon Digital Chassis, a collection of integrated technologies that enable connected vehicles, Qualcomm said it is revolutionizing the driving experience.
The transformation of the auto industry to intelligent, more connected automobiles is driven by the Snapdragon Digital Chassis, which offers various features. The first Mercedes vehicles with Qualcomm digital cockpit will launch in 2023.
What To Expect From 2023 Mercedes-Benz
Combining Mercedes-Benz’s expertise in vehicle innovation with Qualcomm Technologies’ growing portfolio of automotive solutions, the companies’ collective efforts are aimed to deliver personalized, intuitive, and safer driving experiences to consumers.
Rich, immersive in-vehicle experiences, extremely intuitive AI experiences for in-car virtual assistance, natural interactions between the vehicle and driver, and customization of the vehicle to the driver and passenger are all features of the next-generation systems.
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As digital cockpits continue to play a critical role in enabling robust and premium in-vehicle experiences that consumers now expect, Mercedes-Benz is leveraging the Snapdragon Cockpit Platforms to power intuitive and intelligent infotainment systems. With the Snapdragon Cockpit Platforms, these next-generation systems will feature rich, immersive in-vehicle experiences, as well as highly intuitive artificial intelligence (AI) experiences for in-car virtual assistance, natural interactions between the vehicle and driver, adapting the vehicle to suit the driver and passenger.
Utilizing the Snapdragon Automotive Connectivity Platforms, Mercedes-Benz vehicles feature ultra-fast connectivity, quick network response times and reliability needed to support always on always connected experiences and safety.
“For many years, Qualcomm Technologies has helped us deliver innovative solutions to our customers,” said Magnus Ostberg, chief software officer of Mercedes-Benz AG. “Our strong relationship is vital to guiding the automotive industry through a time of exceptional growth and technological disruption.”
“We are proud to bring our Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions to Mercedes-Benz,” said Nakul Duggal, senior vice president & GM, automotive, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Our technology partnership is transforming Mercedes-Benz vehicles as we deliver unparalleled compute, performance, AI and safety experiences by providing premium solutions for their next generation of automobiles.”
Qualcomm’s Automotive Design-Win Pipeline Expands to $30 Billion
The business reports the rising use of its Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions throughout the auto industry has caused its design-win pipeline to climb to $30 billion.
The $10-billion increase represents expansion after its fiscal third-quarter results were released. In particular, the extended pipeline comes from substantial design wins with automakers and Tier-1 suppliers as Qualcomm emerge as the preferred partner for next-generation vehicles in the automotive industry.
In 2021, Qualcomm had almost $11 billion in revenue, of which approximately $350 million was automotive, mostly for the cellular modems that provide connectivity as well as some Snapdragon processors that run infotainment systems. At the company’s 2021 investor day, CEO Cristiano Amon set a target of $3.5 billion in automotive revenue for 2026 and $8 billion by 2031. With the announcements that have been made since then, the chip design company is on its way, particularly winning business away from IntelINTC subsidiary, Mobileye.
Ambitious targets, perhaps, but Qualcomm looks to be well on the way to meeting them as it has been stealing business from rivals such as Intel Corp.’s Mobileye. This year, for instance, it announced that General Motors Co. had begun using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Ride platform to power the advanced driver assist systems in its Cadilla Lyriq models and has said it will be expanding to other models from next year.
Others, including BMW AG and Volkswagen Group, have also said they’re going to shift from Mobileye platforms to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Ride starting in 2025. Qualcomm also announced another customer win with Stellantis N.V., which will use Qualcomm’s digital chassis platform to power a new cabin system that’s being developed in partnership with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., better known as Foxconn.
Earlier this year, GM started using the Qualcomm Snapdragon Ride platform to power the advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) in the Cadillac Lyriq and will be expanding the use of Qualcomm silicon to other models from 2023.
The chip company has been pushing aggressively into the automotive sector in recent years to diversify its business beyond mobile devices, and it sees autonomous vehicles as a key target. It has already made substantial inroads.
Meanwhile, Qualcomm will work with Red Hat to pair that company’s In-Vehicle Operating System with its Digital Chassis platforms. Red Hat had previously partnered with GM, which is using the In-Vehicle OS as the underlying platform for its Ultifi software. It’s not immediately clear if GM will use Qualcomm’s silicon to power Ultifi, as it’s doing with its infotainment and advanced driver assistance systems.
Qualcomm said the integration of its Digital Chassis platforms with Red Hat’s operating system would address higher levels of cybersecurity requirements and certifications associated with privacy and software updates attached to safety applications. Automakers will gain expanded capabilities to perform simple and efficient updates on their vehicles to maintain the highest level of safety.
Qualcomm said, “The rise of open source, software-defined design and development methodologies for vehicle services and innovation is bolstered by advanced automotive platforms and the flexible Linux-based operating systems underpinning them,” said Francis Chow, vice president and general manager of In-Vehicle Operating System and Edge at Red Hat. “These advancements will help enable the latest in-vehicle, cloud-native, mixed-criticality applications while driving sustainability and quicker development cycles.”