Qualcomm banks on AI to get a bigger share of the automotive chip market

Qualcomm is finest recognized for the chips and modems inside Android telephones. But in recent times, it is also began promoting a bundle of {hardware} chips, sensors and software program referred to as Snapdragon Digital Chassis to automakers like GM, Hyundai and Volvo.

Now, it is hoping to capitalize on the hype round generative synthetic intelligence to persuade automakers to purchase extra of those chips and construct new eventualities round them, comparable to good assistants that may assist drivers navigate round cities, make reservations and do different each day computing duties.

Automotive income continues to be a small business for Qualcomm. It reported $1.32 billion in gross sales in its fiscal 2022, or about 3% of the corporate’s general gross sales. But the corporate says that it may count on that its chips shall be utilized in forthcoming vehicles over the following few years, and initiatives greater than $9 billion in gross sales in 2031.

Qualcomm makes between $200 and $3,000 per automobile that use its chips and software program, officers stated final fall at an investor occasion. The firm additionally makes $5 per automobile that is linked to 5G by means of licensing charges.

One instance of the corporate’s presence in vehicles: GM’s new electrical $130,000 Cadillac Escalade IQ SUV makes use of Qualcomm chips and software program to assist energy the automobile’s 55-inch dashboard show, in addition to lane-keeping and hands-free driving options underneath GM’s “Ultra Cruise” branding. The SUV additionally notably doesn’t enable customers to reflect their telephones to the leisure system, a characteristic generally known as Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, which means drivers will work together with GM’s chosen software program interface, growing the significance of the in-car pc expertise.

Qualcomm faces stiff competitors from different chipmakers within the automobile chip business. Computer-focused chip firms like Intel by means of its Mobileye subsidiary and Nvidia promote automotive merchandise, along with conventional auto suppliers comparable to Continental, NXP Semiconductors and Bosch, that are all vying to produce elements and chips that energy dashboards and driver help techniques.

This week, Qualcomm demonstrated potential future eventualities that its chips might allow with the help of giant language fashions and generative AI.

In one instance, Qualcomm confirmed how a automobile assistant might discover a recipe for rooster enchiladas and add the components to a procuring record. In one other, the automobile pc makes use of Stable Diffusion, a sort of generative AI mannequin, to create and ship an AI-generated birthday card to the motive force’s brother. The demos have been all working on the automobile’s pc, not a cellphone. The assistant characteristic is a preview of how vehicles might grow to be extra like private computer systems within the coming years. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon sees vehicles as a “new computing platform,” he wrote in a weblog put up this week.

Qualcomm’s demonstration highlights the corporate’s need to be seen as an AI firm, by means of its low-power smartphone GPUs and AI accelerators. Investors have to date centered on Nvidia’s cloud GPUs, that are used to energy functions like ChatGPT. While the AI growth has tripled rival Nvidia’s inventory to date this yr, Qualcomm is just up 5% throughout the identical interval.

A brief-term purpose for Qualcomm’s language fashions is to create a wise consumer information utilizing a big language mannequin that is been skilled and fine-tuned on the dense consumer manuals that include vehicles, stated Nakul Duggal, automotive senior vp at Qualcomm. Another frontier is driver monitoring, or utilizing machine studying to find out if the motive force is distracted or sleeping.

“We’re working with automakers who are actively going from a flat manual that you have in your glove compartment, to really adding context where the car is going to be able to understand what is going on,” Duggal stated.

Another frontier for Qualcomm’s platform could possibly be options that may improve the automobile’s software program on the go along with new self-driving capabilities, Duggal stated — which might even be a brand new income stream for automakers.

“Where are you driving? Do you have trouble parking? Would you like to subscribe to that automated parking feature that we have that you haven’t actually purchased, but we can upgrade over-the-air? Or would you like a free trial for a period of time?” Duggal stated. “There are so many different things that you can do once you have context.”