Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and General Motors (GM) announced their continued relationship to deliver digital cockpits, next-generation telematics systems and future advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) to upcoming vehicles.

For its next-generation vehicles, GM is reworking its in-vehicle experience, using third-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platforms. The high-performance digital cockpit systems will provide new, rich, and immersive in-vehicle experiences as well as highly intuitive artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled experiences for in-car virtual assistance, natural interactions between the vehicle and driver, and contextual safety use cases.

Qualcomm Technologies has worked with GM for years to supply advanced communication solutions for GM’s connected car applications, including safety and diagnostics featured in GM’s connected Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles. As an extension of the relationship, GM worked with Qualcomm Technologies for C-V2X, which has launched with the Buick GL8 MPV now available in China.

Qualcomm Technologies also announced the increasing adoption of the company’s third-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platforms by leading Tier-1 suppliers across the globe, who are taking advantage of the platforms’ scalable design to meet the automakers’ needs of delivering a variety of customizable options for consumers.

Building on the technology introduced with the industry-leading Qualcomm Snapdragon 820a Platform, the 3rd Generation Snapdragon Automotive Platforms are engineered with immersive graphics, multimedia, computer vision and artificial intelligence capabilities. The new platforms feature integrated heterogenous computing capabilities, leveraging the multi-core Qualcomm AI Engine, Qualcomm Spectra Image Signal Processor (ISP), fourth-generation Qualcomm Kryo Central Processing Unit (CPU), Qualcomm Hexagon Processor and sixth-generation Qualcomm Adreno Visual Subsystem.

The Qualcomm AI Engine optimizes the AI capabilities of all primary Snapdragon cores including CPU, GPU and the Hexagon Processor. The all-new Hexagon Processor includes Hexagon Vector eXtensions (HVX) and a dedicated Hexagon Tensor Accelerator (HTA) to provide exceptional AI acceleration for a more power-efficient implementation of edge-based machine learning use-cases such as Natural Language Processing and Object classification.

The 3rd Generation Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platforms also feature the Qualcomm Secure Processing Unit (SPU), engineered to help protect personal and vehicle data, and Qualcomm Vision Enhanced Precise Positioning based camera sensors and computer vision capabilities to support differentiated use-cases on lane-level crowdsourcing of drive data for building map layers.

These platforms include virtualization support compatibility with leading hypervisor solutions to address the domain convergence of infotainment and instrumentation systems, helping automakers meet the increasing complexity demanded by the consolidation of the digital cluster and infotainment domains.

These new platforms also leverage the same software architecture and framework across all tiers allowing automakers to offer a harmonized user experience independent of the vehicle tier while leveraging the same software framework.

The new platforms also offer comprehensive software support for Android, LINUX high-level and other real-time operating systems, providing flexible and scalable software solutions to support mixed criticality solutions, multiple engine control unit (ECU) consolidation, one-to-many high-resolution and refresh rate displays, basic audio to multi-zone, luxury Hi-Fi with multi-mic echo cancellation and noise reduction for voice calls and user interface interaction, and state-of-the-art 2D and 3D graphic visualization for vehicle occupants to utilize connected services information, and enjoy protected movie and entertainment content.

The 3rd Generation Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platforms also feature an advanced suite of wireless technologies to support multi-mode cellular connectivity, Wi-Fi 6, as well as enhanced Bluetooth technologies.

Since the introduction of the artificial intelligence (AI)-based platforms, Qualcomm Technologies has seen continued traction with leading Tier-1 suppliers, including LG Electronics Inc, Google LLC, Panasonic Corporation, Visteon Corporation and more.

With the 3^rd Generation Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platforms currently available to customers, Qualcomm Technologies expects to see continued commercial deployment in 2021, accelerating the adoption of the platforms from the end of 2020.