CARIAD, the Volkswagen Group’s software company, will look to Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. to supply system-on-chips (SoCs) for CARIAD’s software platform designed to enable assisted and automated driving functions up to Level 4. The SoCs from Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon Ride Platform portfolio will be an important hardware component in CARIAD’s standardized and scalable compute platform, which are targeted for Group vehicles from the middle of the decade.

Snapdragon Ride features the industry’s first-announced scalable and fully customizable SoC platforms and Snapdragon Vision products built on 4nm process technology. This along with the Ride SDK toolset allows automakers and Tier 1 suppliers to develop powerful and efficient designs, such as specific drive policies to meet their specific requirements.

The selection of Qualcomm Technologies is the first of its kind for CARIAD, allowing it to define which high-performance computer chips are used for its platform and match them with its own software requirements.

Under the leadership of CEO Herbert Diess, Volkswagen last year presented its NEW AUTO strategy, aimed at leading the Group into an autonomous and sustainable mobility future. Going forward, the Group will span everything from manufacturing and selling vehicles, to producing battery cells and offering energy services, to providing mobility solutions and developing and continuously updating software.

With Qualcomm Technologies’ high-performance SoCs, the Group will be able to deliver a range of secure and scalable automated driving functions.

The relationship with Qualcomm Technologies is also an important step in strengthening CARIAD’s own competencies in the definition of optimized high-performance semiconductors. Behind this is the conviction that software and hardware must be perfectly matched in order to achieve the best possible performance and efficiency of central computer systems in the long term. This is especially true for complex functions such as highly automated driving.