Qualcomm teams up with BMW for hands-free driving

Qualcomm is joining forces with BMW connected a caller driver-assist strategy that volition let drivers to instrumentality their hands disconnected the instrumentality connected approved roads.

Qualcomm, which supplies infotainment, driver-assist, and telematics systems to a variety of automakers, is looking to rise its portfolio successful the car industry, arsenic much car companies crook to precocious processors and chips to powerfulness high-tech features. The San Diego-based chipmaker says it presently has $45 cardinal successful aboriginal gross successful its automotive pipeline close now.

Now it’s teaming up with BMW to bring hands-free driving and much precocious autonomous features to much vehicles. The 2 companies jointly developed the caller bundle system, which signals a increasing relation for automakers successful the improvement of their autonomous systems. It’s built connected Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Ride system-on-a-chip utilizing this jointly developed bundle stack. And Qualcomm says it was built “to conscionable the highest information standards,” citing the European Union’s New Car Assessment Programme for Level 2 Plus systems.

These systems are akin to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving, GM’s Super Cruise, and Ford’s BlueCruise, insofar arsenic they let drivers to region their hands from the steering instrumentality and feet from the pedals connected approved roads. (Different car brands person antithetic rules astir erstwhile this is allowed, and for however long.)

The system, which Qualcomm calls its Snapdragon Ride Pilot, made its debut astatine the Munich car amusement contiguous successful the BMW iX3, which is the German automaker’s archetypal “Neue Klasse” next-gen electrical vehicle. Qualcomm says the strategy has been validated for usage successful much than 60 countries, with plans to grow to implicit 100 successful 2026. Snapdragon Ride Pilot volition beryllium made disposable to each automakers and Tier-1 suppliers.

While astir hands-free systems are marketed arsenic convenience features, Qualcomm says its caller driver-assist features should besides assistance amended safety. “That’s wherefore we judge astatine Qualcomm that ADAS [advanced driver-assist systems] and automated driving should beryllium arsenic prevalent arsenic seatbelts,” Qualcomm VP for merchandise selling Ignacio Contreras said successful a caller briefing, “not lone for the information benefits that it brings to the car, but besides for the convenience and productivity improvements that exertion brings to users worldwide.”

With much cars equipped with partial automation hitting the road, safety researchers are increasing progressively worried astir operator attraction and the imaginable for these systems to origin crashes. There is compelling grounds that, careless of the company, most driver-assist systems are little harmless than mean quality driving. Drivers thin to make an overreliance connected these systems to thrust the car for them — adjacent aft a abbreviated play of use. And erstwhile it’s clip to instrumentality backmost power of the vehicle, their absorption times are slower than what’s considered safe.

Qualcomm says the caller bundle volition guarantee that the operator stays engaged with the roadworthy utilizing the vehicle’s monitoring system. “The strategy has the built-in redundancy from that perspective,” said Dheeraj Ahuja, the company’s caput of autonomous driving. “It has aggregate algorithms trying to marque these decisions as harmless arsenic possible. However, beingness connected the roadworthy is rather chaotic astatine times, and this is wherever the operator engagement is precise important.”