Qualcomm (QCOM) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) are betting you want artificial intelligence in your car. But what does that mean exactly?
Building on an existing relationship, Qualcomm says its Snapdragon Digital Chassis, its chipset, and associated technologies, paired with Google’s Android Automotive OS, will be the basis of a “digital cockpit” using generative AI, with Google’s AI powering the in-car experiences. Qualcomm made the announcement Tuesday from its Snapdragon Summit 2024 in Maui.
Qualcomm and Google said this will provide “intuitive voice assistants, immersive map experiences, and real-time updates to anticipate driver needs.” Mercedes Benz and China’s Li Auto will be the first partners to use the technology in future cars, Qualcomm said.
This means your car could connect to what the companies call your “digital life,” meaning your mobile device, laptop, cloud accounts, you name it. Perhaps you could book a reservation to a restaurant using the AI assistant, which then logs into your Resy account, enters the appointment into your Google calendar, and begins navigation to the restaurant if it’s almost time for your dinner.
More interesting is an example of a car in the future using autonomous driving technology. In the case provided by Qualcomm, the car senses that there is no parking at the destination of your trip. The car then tells the driver that it will drop him or her off at the location and will circle around on its own and find a parking spot by itself, without you having to waste any time.
And don’t worry, Apple (AAPL) CarPlay fans (myself included). Qualcomm says the new digital cockpit will allow Apple’s ubiquitous and easy iPhone mirroring software to be used in the car.
“Absolutely, so the platform is actually capable of supporting really any ecosystem, any configuration, any solution that is out there,” Nakul Duggal, Qualcomm’s head of automotive, said to Yahoo Finance about CarPlay compatibility.
“You know, this platform is deployed across hundreds of millions of vehicles today. So I can bet you if you’re driving a car today that you bought in the last couple of years, it’s featuring our technology,” Duggal said, meaning if it’s already compatible with CarPlay, it should stay that way.
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.
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