Have Qualcomm heard that in a couple of years all cars will be self-driving and that Nvidia will rule the market? Based on statements from their San Diego headquarters, no. Let's take a trip together across the west and east coasts of the United States, Scandinavia and Australia, in which we take a look at the coming battle of tech giants, as Qualcomm is about to challenge Nvidia.
Our journey begins in Cupertino, and I want to remember the wise words that I dubbed Steve's law (in honor of Steve Jobs): "You have to build on the customer experience and only then get into technology."
All attempts to combine the technology and automotive industries lead to two options for the final customer experience: the responsibility for driving the vehicle will lie with either a human driver or an electronic autopilot. All controversy boils down to this, although some people like to complicate things.
I don’t know if this is a delusion or an attempt at denial (and maybe even PTSD), but many really smart people cannot accept the reality: private passenger cars will not be fully self-driving anytime soon.
Robotaxis and self-driving cars with fixed routes? No problem. If investors are tempted by these industries, they can simply burn their money, and the mythical "robot taxi providers and fleet operators" will take on any financial and liability risks. This is capitalism. Are you talking about going to the dealership and buying a self-driving car that can drive from coast to coast? We will have to wait for this for many years (and maybe decades).
Judging byWith the partnership between Qualcomm and Veoneer , the unification of the automotive and tech industries is taking a very different path than many anticipated two years ago. This approach creates new opportunities for those with a turnkey solution that meets the needs of automakers and meets the regulatory requirements ahead.
Unbeaten road
Modern developments in the automotive technology market are largely focused on creating ADAS systems that allow drivers to drive their vehicles more safely. Also, these systems are opposed to technologies for self-driving. The speed with which the automotive market is changing course has caused Intel Mobileye and Nvidia to have a very heated debate over chip specs and technology leadership over the past couple of years .
The tech industry is evolving so quickly that even innovative companies are sometimes confused. Leading suppliers who miss important technical advances are sometimes forgotten. Think back to how Motorola missed out on cellular communications. Remember how Nokia missed smartphones. Kodak missed digital cameras. Blockbusters have missed out on streaming services. In my years as an automotive analyst, I have seen countless examples of this. If a company is slower to react to changes in the market, it is not immune from a change in technology.
Whether it's luck or common sense, the abrupt change in direction from self-driving cars to ADAS systems creates a situation in which Qualcomm faces a number of opportunities. Qualcomm for several yearstried to enter the market of self-driving cars and ADAS , and all this time the attitude towards the company was at the level of "it exists somewhere next to Mobileye and Nvidia."
From San Diego, we travel to Stockholm: Veoneer headquarters. EE Times readers may not be very familiar with this company, as it was only founded in July 2018 as a subsidiary of the Autoliv tech segment. Veoneer specializes in sensors, electronics and security software .
While all the mainstream media focused on tech announcements from Mobileye and Nvidia, autopilot from Tesla, and self-driving car demos from Waymo and Cruise, the Veoneer received almost no attention. All this time, Veoneer has been developing software and a sensor suite for the first production-ready security system, which Toyota calls the Guardian .
Once the deal is closed, the likely alliance of Qualcomm and Veoneer will be launching Snapdragon processors and Veoneer's security software to compete with Mobileye's EyeQ and Nvidia's Drive. In an article titled "Veoneer Escaped Nvidia To Marry Qualcomm"on unmanned vehicles and ADAS systems, Junko Yoshida asked the following question: What if these two companies [Qualcomm and Veoneer] can convince Tier-1 manufacturers to work with them and not with Mobileye?
Great question, stock up on some popcorn and make yourself comfortable. Let's take a look at how the change in direction from self-driving cars to ADAS systems made us realize that Nvidia and Mobileye were missing out on a number of technologies. We'll also discuss why the Qualcomm-Veoneer partnership could be a far more important deal than meets the eye.
Tracking driver status and human error
If cars do not become self-driving, then driver monitoring systems will become the main technology for recognizing distractions, drowsiness and impaired well-being of the human driver. In this case, ADAS systems will become the second most important safety technology, warning of a dangerous situation, helping to cope with it, or completely taking over control. Mobileye and Nvidia are betting on AI and self-driving, although both companies have done nothing in the driver-tracking market.
Veoneer, by contrast, is pursuing what the company calls “Collaborative Driving,” a strategy that is almost unique across the industry. The idea is that Veoneer wants to make human drivers safer. To do this, the company builds on user experience and uses modern technology in the context of scientific research on the human factor. You can learn more about this concept in the video below.
How has Veoneer been able to investigate the Human Factors and use the results of this research to develop its Collaborative Driving System?
I don’t know why Missy Cummings joined the Veoneer team, and I don’t know how they decided to run away from Nvidia and team up with Qualcomm, but I have to give Veoneer's CEO Ian Carlson credit.
Our journey ends in Canberra, where Seeing Machines is headquartered. The company specializes in driver tracking systems, and it is its software that powers Cadillac's Super Cruise system. Autoliv and Seeing Machines began working together in August 2017, and Seeing Machines will start working with Qualcomm earlier this year .
Thus, Seeing Machines is the supplier of the driver tracking systems in the picture at the beginning of the article. The company recentlyannounced its strategy for next-generation driver-tracking systems , and it is likely that Mobileye and Nvidia will be calling their office in the next few weeks.
Speaking of the collaboration between Qualcomm and Veoneer, we visited Cupertino, San Diego, Stockholm, Duke University and Canberra. And it will only get more interesting further, because Qualcomm wants to challenge Nvidia and Mobileye to compete in creating a driver assistance system that will become the mainstream solution in the market.
NXP, Renesas, Texas Instruments, Toshiba and Xilinx will also likely play key roles as semiconductor companies begin to understand how to build and implement driver assistance systems, health monitoring systems and human factors to make driving safer. This will be very interesting to watch. I might even buy a front row ticket.
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