Qualcomm ‘Elite’ Computing Platform Moves Industry Closer to SDVs

MAUI, HI – If future cars and trucks are to be as envisioned – more connected, more intelligent and responsive to the needs and whims of their occupants and more capable of driving themselves safely – they’re going to need powerful computers and sophisticated onboard electronic networks to get the job done.

Qualcomm, which already has carved a significant foothold in the SDV space with its Snapdragon Digital Chassis platform –  reporting it landed 10 new design wins with global automakers in Q3 2024 alone – steps up its game here at a wide-ranging backgrounder for media and analysts with the release of its most formidable offering yet in the new Elite line, said to be powered by its most efficient and AI-capable processors to date.

The San Diego-based tech company also reveals the start of a key collaboration with Google that puts it in the catbird’s seat in the rollout of Google’s increasingly prevalent Android Automotive Operating System, which continues to make inroads as a core software stack in vehicles worldwide. The Android Automotive OS already is onboard some General Motors, Audi, Polestar, Renault, Stellantis and Volvo models, among others.

Powered by an ultra-fast second-generation version of Qualcomm’s Oryon processors launched earlier this year to strong reviews in PC applications, plus stepped-up versions of its Adreno GPUs and Hexagon NPUs, the new Elite line of the Snapdragon Cockpit and Snapdragon Ride platforms unveiled here will give automakers the option of adding greater performance, flexibility and capability to their vehicles’ digital and automated-driving experience.

Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite also are designed to support a more consolidated domain architecture and more efficient data-sharing within the vehicle, offering the flexibility to have both of those functions reside on a single platform, if the automaker chooses, moving the industry another step closer to scaling down onboard computing to an all-encompassing centralized unit as part of the shift to the software-defined vehicle.

Nakul Duggal, group manager, automotive, industrial and cloud for Qualcomm Technologies, says to expect automakers to gradually move ADAS and digital-cockpit operations to such a single processor, initially by folding in simple ADAS functionality within the cockpit controller and slowly migrating more sophisticated driving features as they get comfortable with the transition.

“We believe this is going to be the definition of what the next-generation compute platform looks like,” Duggal tells WardsAuto of the Elite line. “The more the transition to software-defined vehicles advances…the more this platform becomes relevant because the same platform can be used for the cockpit, it can be used for automated driving independently (or) you can mix and match the two because it’s a safe platform.

“It brings tremendous flexibility to all types of customers.”

Qualcomm says that combining ADAS and cockpit functions into one computer should produce a “significant leap” in power and performance efficiency for automakers, of particular importance in the movement to electrified vehicles.

Core to the new Elite line is an automotive-grade version of Qualcomm’s Oryon CPU, which claims three times the performance of the company’s current  automotive chips. In addition, Elite’s AI-dedicated Hexagon NPU is 12 times as powerful as its previous cockpit SoC, the company says.

That upgraded capability is expected to pave the way for sophisticated AI assistants, which could be trained to provide more detailed information about a maintenance alert that appears on the instrument cluster, adapt operations to the driver’s preferences and proactively offer suggestions or adjust the vehicle’s settings to optimize the user experience, for example.

The latest-generation Adreno GPU employed in the Snapdragon Cockpit Elite line is designed to enhance the visual experience inside the cabin, handling up to 16 separate displays with 4K resolution. It provides high definition and fast frame rates for in-vehicle gaming and driver information systems, enabling such features as in-vehicle video calls, detailed 3D map displays and what Qualcomm says are lifelike simulations.

The platform also provides for zonal audio, meaning each occupant would be able to watch a movie, play a game or otherwise access their own infotainment without interfering with what others are doing. Passengers also will be able to audibly change the cabin temperature in their zone without affecting other occupants.

Snapdragon Ride Elite is said to be six times as powerful as Qualcomm’s current ADAS platform. The system can support more than 40 sensors, including multiple 16-megapixel cameras outside the vehicle with 360-degree field of view, as well as passenger-facing infrared cameras for cabin monitoring.

The platform is designed for hands-free, unsupervised automated driving (Level 4) as well as real-time driver monitoring, and is targeted to meet stringent ASIL-D safety standards. The flexibility of the Snapdragon Ride Elite’s central processor means multiple applications can run concurrently without performance loss, allowing cameras and other sensors to multitask.

The Elite platform’s scalability provides automakers with the capability to design one architecture that can be deployed across a range of vehicles at various price points, speeding product development and getting the latest innovations into the hands of consumers more quickly, Qualcomm says.

Although the Elite lineup is debuting at the high end, the platform ultimately will scale down to midlevel vehicle applications as well, Duggal says.

The new computing platform will be available to OEMs for sampling in 2025, but the company says several customers worldwide already are interested in the line and the first Elite applications are expected to be on the road in 2026. Mercedes and China’s Li Auto are among automakers already confirming plans to utilize the Snapdragon Elite platforms in future vehicles.

That’s a sign of how quickly the industry is moving on vehicle development, especially in China, notes Mark Granger, senior director-product management, automotive. Getting Elite from the sampling stage and into production vehicles in what could be less than two years represents “a very fast cycle time,” he says.

Meanwhile, the Qualcomm-Google tie-up calls for the two companies to design a new standardized reference platform for the development of AI-based cockpit features utilizing Snapdragon Digital Chassis, Android Automotive OS and Google Cloud technologies.

The template is targeted at developing a roadmap automakers can follow in deploying the Android Automotive OS to their vehicles and providing them with a plug-and-play option should they want to move even more quickly through the product-development process, potentially putting Qualcomm’s Snapdragon lineup in the pole position in the race for automotive system-on-chip applications should Android Automotive OS continue to proliferate as some industry insiders predict.

“We want to be able to have the ability to scale the Google offering as part of the Snapdragon Digital Chassis to any new OEM that comes along,” Duggal says. “That way, this is not your own adventure. This is more of a ‘how do we jointly partner’ to be able to go build something that is highly predictable, highly deterministic and that creates a tremendous amount of clarity and confidence in the OEM’s mind in terms of what they are going to be able to get (from) us.“

(And) you’re not going to have to do this (architectural engineering) car by car, brand by brand.”