CARIAD, the Volkswagen Group’s software company has tapped Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. to supply system-on-chips (SoCs) for CARIAD’s software platform designed to enable assisted and automated driving functions for VW vehicles expected to hit the market around 2025.
The SoCs from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Ride Platform portfolio will be an important hardware component in CARIAD’s standardized and scalable compute platform, VW and Qualcomm announced last week (May 3).
“The connected and automated car of the future is a high-performance computer on wheels. Behind it lies enormously complex computing power,” said CARIAD CEO Dirk Hilgenberg.
“With our automated driving solutions, we are striving to let customers take their hands off the steering wheel in the future,” Hilgenberg added. “Our software and Qualcomm Technologies’ high-performance SoCs are the perfect match to bring this new automotive experience to customers around the world.”
Qualcomm continues to increase its autonomous driving/automotive business following the purchase earlier this year of Swedish’s firm Veoneer, a pioneer in autonomous driving software.
“We look forward to supporting CARIAD and its suppliers to deliver scalable and secure automated driving functions for Volkswagen Group vehicles through their selection of our open and programmable Snapdragon Ride Platforms,” said Nakul Duggal, senior vice president and GM, automotive, Qualcomm Technologies.
“As the amount of innovation and complexities increase, strong collaborations such as ours with CARIAD are a necessity to not only address aggressive time-to-market goals, but to deliver safe and reliable automated driving experiences for all,” Duggal added.
The selection of Qualcomm Technologies, a specialist in the semiconductor industry, is the first of its kind for CARIAD, allowing it to define which high-performance computer chips are used for its platform and match them with its own software requirements.
Under the leadership of CEO Herbert Diess, Volkswagen last year presented its “NEW AUTO” strategy, aimed at leading the Volkswagen Group into “an autonomous and sustainable mobility future.”
Going forward, VW plans to be involved in everything from manufacturing and selling vehicles, to producing battery cells and offering energy services, to providing mobility solutions and developing and continuously updating software, VW officials said.
With Qualcomm Technologies’ high-performance SoCs, VW will be able to deliver a range of secure and scalable automated driving functions. CARIAD said SoCs from the Snapdragon Ride Platform portfolio are “optimally suited” to the needs of the software its developed.
“We are proud to be supporting CARIAD with Snapdragon Ride Platforms to support NCAP, active safety, to Level 4, self-driving, functionality, across the Volkswagen Group vehicles launching from the middle of the decade,” said Enrico Salvatori, SVP & President Qualcomm Europe/MEA, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
“Finding the best balance between scalability, costs and performance was one of our biggest challenges for the design of our new High Performance Compute platform”, said Klaus Hofmockel, senior VP Hardware Development at CARIAD. “Qualcomm Technologies’ fully scalable SoC lineup delivers very efficient compute performance in combination with energy efficiency and also cost-effectiveness.”
CARIAD develops automated driving functions up to Level 4 based on Snapdragon Ride Platforms.
CARIAD, an independent automotive software company in the Volkswagen Group, was established in 2020 under the name Car.Software Organization. Today, CARIAD has around 5,000 engineers and developers working on a unified software platform for all Volkswagen Group brands, comprising an operating system, a unified architecture and an automotive cloud.
CARIAD has centers in Wolfsburg, Ingolstadt, the Stuttgart region, Berlin and Munich, and works closely with the Volkswagen Group’s international development teams in the U.S. and China.
Qualcomm
Founded: 1985
CEO: Cristiano Amon
Employees: 41,000
Revenue: $33.57 billion (2021)
Headquarters: San Diego
Website: www.qualcomm.com
Notable: Qualcomm boosted its autonomous driving portfolio with the purchase earlier this year of Swedish company Veoneer, a pioneer in autonomous driving software.
