There’s little doubt that technology has driven significant changes in the automotive industry, but the biggest are yet to come. When equipped with connectivity and robust processing power, vehicles can be continually redefined through their software — allowing automakers to deliver a more personalized and immersive consumer experience that can be continually refreshed via the cloud. The future of automotive development, software-defined vehicles allow applications to be developed in the cloud and deployed at the edge, streamlining the development process and empowering the ecosystem to bring connected, intelligent, and always fresh experiences into the cockpit.
At CES 2023, Qualcomm Technologies introduced a new concept vehicle showcasing how the Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions integrate technologies from a diverse ecosystem of companies to deliver experiences that are highly personalized and intuitive, including immersive infotainment, driver assistance, and enhanced safety. With the Snapdragon Digital Chassis and Qualcomm’s horizontal connected services platform, Car-to-Cloud, automakers can scale these premium experiences across a wide range of vehicle tiers and personalize them for each occupant. They can also deliver feature upgrades and connected services on-demand throughout the vehicle’s lifecycle, allowing for an extended consumer relationship with ongoing revenue opportunities. This includes services packages, including device configuration, data insights, and beyond all driven through APIs.
The Snapdragon Digital Chassis concept vehicle brings the software-defined vehicle to life, showcasing an array of applications and services that allow consumers to extend their digital life into their vehicle. Qualcomm is collaborating with the following industry leading technology and service providers to demonstrate the possibilities for automakers looking to innovate next generation user experiences.
Ecosystem Partners include ACCESS, Amazon Music, AUO, Bose, Carota, Cognizant, Daon, Rightware, SoundHound, ThunderSoft, Vector Unit and Wink, to name a few.
Personalization and services
Integrated with a suite of automotive services and powered by artificial intelligence, software-defined cockpits provide a natural and intuitive experience for occupants that improves over time. With the ability to quickly recognize each person, vehicles automatically adjust to their individual settings, such as seat position and climate, while also displaying recently used applications and preferred content on their respective screens. Using virtual assistance with natural language control and understanding, users can easily engage with the vehicle for ongoing adjustments throughout their journey. Integrated facial recognition and biometric authentication also allow them to make purchases with ease, whether it’s bringing new features, content, and services into the vehicle, or paying for transportation services such as parking.
“ACCESS is pleased to work with Qualcomm to bring compelling entertainment services and games to the in-car environment via our Twine For Car passenger experience platform and the Snapdragon Digital Chassis Connected Services.”
– Masahiro Aono, CEO of ACCESS Europe
“Identity proofing and driver authentication are essential to connected vehicles. As a company that safeguards over one billion identities for frictionless consumer onboarding and authentication experiences, Daon is ideally positioned to assist leaders in the automotive market to meet the needs of tomorrow’s customer. We are proud to work with the visionary automotive team at Qualcomm, Snapdragon Digital Chassis Connected Services to help deliver a connected future for automotive manufacturers, drivers and passengers.”
– Conor White, president of the Americas at Daon
“Wink is pleased to work with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Digital Chassis Connected Services to demonstrate a new camera-based driver recognition and handsfree payment technology for the connected car market. Through our work together, we look forward to showcasing how we can bring to market unique frictionless payment experiences as automakers shift to software-defined vehicle architectures.”Deepak Jain, founder and CEO of Wink
Interactive assistance
Software is creating more room for innovation, making traditional hand-controlled dashboard and menus an increasingly inadequate user interface. Intuitive voice control will be essential for assisting users when interacting with the vehicle, whether it’s to adjust the seat, turn up the music, or make a purchase. All passengers benefit from having a conversational virtual assistant that’s tuned into their specific audio-zone.
“We’re excited to showcase our industry-leading voice AI on the Snapdragon Cockpit Platform. Qualcomm’s enhanced processing capabilities help eliminate extraneous noise, and work seamlessly with SoundHound’s edge and cloud products for an exceptional in-vehicle voice experience.”
– Keyvan Mohajer, co-founder and CEO of SoundHound
Immersive audio
No one can agree on the music? No problem. Premium audio technology, coupled with a wide variety of music and audio content streaming options, is sure to please even those listeners with the most particular taste. Each passenger can customize their audio-zone, while also benefiting from active noise and echo cancellation with engine noise suppression for an optimal listening experience. Premium in-vehicle audio also improves the listening experience for remote users, using zonal call technology to reduce noise from other areas of the vehicle during voice calls.
Collaboration
From a professional participating in a video conference in the front seat to the kids online gaming with their friends in the rear seats, passengers won’t miss a beat on future road trips. When parked, the driver can take advantage of the 55-inch front display to enjoy content streaming or online gaming in the driver seat. Vehicles equipped with 5G connectivity and collaboration apps allow everyone to stay connected while traveling.
Premium displays
Front and rear displays with enhanced graphics support premium viewing experiences and endless personalization options for all occupants, including a 55-inch pillar-to-pillar display for the driver and front passenger.
“As a global leader in automotive displays, AUO is keen on exploring possibilities with partners. We are excited to bring AUO’s pillar-to-pillar, curved AmLED display with built-in camera and sensors to the Snapdragon Digital Chassis Platform to drive next-generation in-vehicle infotainment. By combining AUO’s cutting-edge display solutions and Qualcomm’s high-performance computing platforms, we can enable automakers to create premium, intuitive and immersive experiences for drivers and passengers together.”
– Frank Ko, president and COO of AUO Corporation
Safety and convenience
Real-time 3D mapping and positioning services will continue to redefine the consumer experience and the transportation industry. Continuously improving today’s navigation and advanced driver assistance systems, these technologies make travel safer and more convenient for road users, which is essential if drivers ever hope to truly disengage from the wheel — to operate autonomously, vehicles will need to know precisely where they are and everything going on around them, as it’s happening. In the unfortunate event of a crash, footage from around the vehicle can be recorded and stored to the cloud. Software-defined vehicles help to reduce the guesswork and stress associated with road incidents, simplifying the resolution process for drivers, fleet managers, law enforcement, insurance companies, and other transportation service providers.
“With the rapid development of digital transformation in the automotive industry, software is playing an increasingly important role. The Snapdragon Digital Chassis solution lays a solid foundation for software to realize more functions in modern vehicles. ThunderSoft, a leading software technologies and products provider, is joining hands with Qualcomm to continue our efforts in advancing this evolution of automotive industry.”
– Wenguang Wu, executive president of ThunderSoft
“We are proud to work with Qualcomm to create the future of the intelligent digital cockpit. We look forward to seeing our HMI tool, Kanzi One, work with the Snapdragon Cockpit Platform to deliver a seamless and brilliant automotive user interface (UI), and to showcase how automakers can completely customize a vehicle’s interface with Kanzi One to create their own signature UI.”
– Freddie Geier, CEO of Rightware
“Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Digital Chassis Connected Services enable exciting new software-defined vehicle features, systems and components, and Cognizant is proud to contribute our leading edge engineering expertise in next-generation connected vehicles to this effort. We are excited to demonstrate solutions with Qualcomm at CES 2023 in the areas of connected services platform APIs, connected fleet management and other mobility solutions designed to help OEMs and the broader automotive ecosystem navigate this complex terrain.”
– Vibha Rustagi, global head of IoT at Cognizant
“It’s a great honor to continue and strengthen our work with Qualcomm by offering over-the-air upgrades and fleet management solutions for software-defined vehicles integrated with Snapdragon Digital Chassis Connected Services. Our primary focus at Carota is making sure that vehicles always perform at their best, and we are leading the charge in the connected vehicle revolution.”Paul Wu, CEO and founder of Carota
