from playing Fortnite to watching movies

After yesterday’s presentation of the new processors for mobile phones, the second day of the Qualcomm Summit 2024 event takes place protagonist of the connected and autonomous vehicle. The two technologies, which go hand in hand, are increasingly represented in Europe, largely thanks to the push for electric cars, whose manufacturers have become more open to integrating the latest developments in the sector.

The Californian company thus presented two new technologies called Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elitewhich are in turn integrated into the Snapdragon Digital Chassis that they launched in 2022. The latter is an open and connected platform focused on all technological areas of the car in which a processor is necessary.

Within the technological part, the Entertainment has become a fundamental pillar of vehicles. Increasingly larger screens spread across more locations have opened up an almost infinite range of possibilities for brands to integrate all types of content, from streaming like Netflix or YouTube to play video games as if the car were a console.

“Qualcomm continues to lead innovation with platforms like Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Ride Elite, as the automotive industry moves toward centralized computing, Software-defined vehicles and AI-driven architectures“, explained Nakul Duggal, head of Qualcomm’s automotive, industrial and cloud business.

Duggal also said that with Qualcomm’s computing, graphics and artificial intelligence capabilities, automakers can Redefine automotive experiences for your customers. With the new features presented on this second day of the 2024 Summit, the company intends to promote this entire multimedia section while focusing on comfort with certain applications and tools assisted by AI.

On-board entertainment

With the diffusion of new autonomous driving technologies, the role of the person behind the wheel of the vehicle is gradually moving into the background. The intention of big players in the sector like Tesla – especially when they have just presented a car directly without a steering wheel – is for all passengers to relax while the systems take care of everything.

At the heart of the Snapdron Cockpìt Elite and Ride Elite is the Second generation Oryon processor. Last year Qualcomm launched the first batch of laptops with Windows 11 and all the artificial intelligence tools and just yesterday it did the same with this second generation which also reaches the smart phones.

In addition to the CPU, the company also integrates the Adreno GPU – as the graphics unit – and the Hexagon NPU – the neural processing unit – which complement the entire processor in charge, among other things, in-vehicle entertainment of the most immediate future. As explained, it is designed to run multiple applications in parallel without performance drops, bottlenecks or response delays.

The Adreno GPU enhances the visual experience for vehicle occupants with additional capabilities such as Ray Tracing, a technology used in the world of video games to improve reflections and scene lighting. It also enables high refresh rates and “immersive visual experiences” with up to 16 displays with 4K resolution.

All these technologies incorporated in the Snapdragon Cockpit Elite allow you to transform the car into a multimedia and entertainment center with maximum performance. For example, for run video games like Fortnite or any title compatible with the ARM architecture of the processor in very high quality as if it were a console.

With the incorporation of screens in vehicles, in some models they even exist for passengers, all this demonstration of graphic capacity is also reflected in the multimedia playback of series, films, social networks and from any application .

Custom wizards

Additionally, the Hexagon NPU enables the integration of smarter virtual assistants to provide instant, accurate and personalized responses. The data provided by Qualcomm is as follows manages to multiply performance by 12 in this aspect compared to previous chips.

Among the new features included in this new system for connected vehicles, Qualcomm said that artificial intelligence can make personalized recommendations and even automatically execute actions by knowing where the user is going and when.

Another example they gave is that the system can silence the driver’s message notifications if it detects that there is another occupant on board and it doesn’t have to know. “It’s like having an assistant who really understands you,” they announced during the presentation.

In this category, Qualcomm has announced its new Audio AI technologywhich detects the position of vehicle occupants, their language and even their dialect to deliver individual experiences. For example, only the driver receives audible warnings about the road.

Another of the proposed situations in which this AI can be used concerns the loudly setting the desired temperature for each passenger. With a simple command saying you are cold or hot, the vehicle will be able to differentiate who said it and will only change the temperature based on that person, maintaining the rest.

Driving assistance

It’s all part of Snapdragon Ride Elite is responsible for managing and analyzing the data obtained thanks to sensors installed on board the car. As noted in the presentation, the technology draws directly from three sources: the cloud with AI that takes into account the rest of the devices – like smart phones or computers—, the sensors inside the cabin and those placed outside.

As an ideal use scenario, Qualcomm comments that the car will be able to recognize that the day is sunny and with a good temperature to decide, on its own and taking into account the occupants’ preferences, to open the sunroof to let in some fresh air. It will also know if there are parking spaces near where the user has an appointment to better plan where they can drop them off and then pick them up, all autonomously.

The Californian company also presented a new vehicle monitoring mode very similar to Tesla’s Sentinel which allows remote access to cameras installed in the vehicle with very low energy consumption, as explained.