Ambitious! Qualcomm is pushing smart cars in four areas

In 2021, Qualcomm's automotive business revenue reached $975 million, an increase of 51.40% YoY. Although the automotive business still accounts for a relatively low percentage (about 3.6%), it has shown strong growth. OrientSecurities provides an in-depth analysis of Qualcomm's history and layout in the smart car business in four areas.

Qualcomm has a 20-year history in the smart car sector. As early as 2002, the company jointly launched the Angiotech in-vehicle connectivity solution with General Motors based on its wireless communication technology, followed by 3G, 4G, and 5G solutions, and released four generations of cabin platforms between 2014 and 2021. Qualcomm is continuing to improve its smart cabin products and is also actively involved in autonomous driving, and will continue to maintain its R&D and investment in the automotive sector in the future.

At CES 2022, Qualcomm showcased the development of the Snapdragon Digital Chassis. The Snapdragon Digital Chassis consists of four major platforms, namely Snapdragon Ride, Snapdragon Cockpit, Snapdragon CarSmart, and Snapdragon Car-to-Cloud Service, which correspond to the four major areas of focus for Qualcomm's automotive business.

For infotainment and dashboard, passenger and rear entertainment systems, and occupant monitoring, also including virtualization and integrated RTOS/OS.

The product portfolio includes Snapdragon automotive 4G and 5G platforms, the world's first Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X chipset for C-V2X, and a complete C-V2X reference platform for roadside and in-vehicle units.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon Ride platform is a high-performance, low-power ADAS and autonomous driving solution capable of supporting L4/L5 autonomous driving.

Smart-connected cars need to connect to the cloud in real-time, continuously upgrade hardware and software through OTA, and transfer data through the connection with the cloud to provide better services and user experience.

Qualcomm has been providing technology solutions to the automotive industry for 20 years and has been recognized by many car manufacturers in areas such as smart cockpits and in-car connectivity. As of January 2021, more than 150 million vehicles worldwide have adopted Qualcomm's technology, and 20 of the world's top 25 automakers have chosen to adopt the Snapdragon digital cockpit platform, with a total order value of nearly US$8 billion for Qualcomm's automotive solutions.