Tested Qualcomm’s New Self-Driving System at CES 2020 Unveiled

There I sat in the passenger seat of a modified Lincoln MKZ on Sunday, motoring down I-15 in sunny Las Vegas, the car smoothly shifting lanes and weaving through the light midday traffic. And you know who was driving? No one.

The car was under the control of the Qualcomm Snapdragon Ride Platform, which had been installed in a modified Lincoln to show off the chip maker’s new push into the market for autonomous cars. The company announced the new platform, which includes a combination of multi-core processors, graphics processors, a computer vision system, and artificial intelligence software, at a Consumer Electronics Show press event in Las Vegas Monday.

Qualcomm has been selling components to the auto industry for “cockpit” applications like the General Motors (GM) OnStar system for years now, and for telematics applications like vehicle tracking. Now, the company is making a big push into the hottest area in automotive technology—cars that drive themselves.

The auto industry has a bigger presence at this year’s CES trade show than ever before. For years, whole sections of the Las Vegas Convention Center’s North Hall were given over to aftermarket sound systems and various other automotive gadgets. This year, automakers are showing off current and advanced concepts for both electric vehicles and autonomous driving. And it isn’t just the carmakers themselves: The chip industry has taken dead aim at what they see as a huge opportunity—providing the digital power to drive the future of transportation. Qualcomm’s new ride platform is taking on both Nvidia, which is making announcements of its own in this space this week, as is Intel’s Mobileye division.

The glam approach to autonomous driving is Level 5, meaning cars that are Fully automated, where you can literally take a nap and leave the driving to the silicon. But early optimism about the timing of Level 5 self-driving cars fades by the day. It’s going to be years before fully automated driving technology is ready for widespread use. What you are going to see for now are more cars equipped with ADAS, advanced driver assistance systems. That’s what I experienced in my little jaunt down I-15; Qualcomm’s new platform was in control most of the time, but there was a “safety driver” behind the wheel who took over when we got off the highway and hit the local streets.

Anshuman Saxena, senior director for ADAS at Qualcomm, said in an interview with Sync Media Network that the new Snapdragon platform will initially target applications like highway driving and automated parking, “the sweet spot where safety is enhanced,” and then eventually move upmarket to full autonomy.

Level 5 autonomy “is still not realistically going to be available in the near term,” Saxena said, and won’t until the industry and government sort out issues like insurance, liability, and regulation. “They are unsolved problems at this point,” he says. “And even from a technology point of view, there are constraints.” He says most Level 5 prototypes have trunks full of PCs, fans, and power supplies that would make them impractical for broad-scale adoption.

Saxena said Qualcomm’s approach to the market has focused on creating a platform that is scalable, open, and programmable and that can be deployed to the mass market. Many autonomous driving systems use LIDAR technology (those spinning things you sometimes see on top of cars testing autonomous features). The Lincoln car I rode in today relied on a combination of eight external cameras and six radar emitters, combined with GPS. Operating without LIDAR makes it cheaper than competing platforms. “Low power and high performance—that’s a Qualcomm strength,” Saxena said, adding that the company has focused on building a platform that makes sense for $20,000 cars, not just $100,000 cars.

Qualcomm will extend its work on cockpit systems and telematics to include working with GM on ADAS systems as well, Saxena said. Qualcomm announced the ride platform will be available for “pre-development” to automakers in the first half of 2020, with the first Snapdragon-enabled vehicles expected to be in production in 2023.

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