Qualcomm and Great Wall Motors Connect

Qualcomm Technologies—the tech company whose chip might be in your cellphone—and Great Wall Motor Company Ltd. (GWM)—which claims to be “China’s largest SUV and pickup manufacturer” (it also makes cars)—have announced that they are working to develop autonomous vehicle capability using the Qualcomm Snapdragon Ride Platform, which will power the GWM “Coffee Intelligence” system.

What Are These Things?

The Snapdragon Ride Platform is based on modular, heterogeneous high-performance multi-core CPUs, energy-efficient AI and computer vision engines, and a GPU.

(Image: Qualcomm)

The “Coffee Intelligence” system handles multiple sensors so as to provide L2+ and L3 capabilities. When it is paired with two standard high-computing power platforms, it can provide compute power of 700+ TOPS and have the capabilities required for L4 and L5 driving.

What Is the Purpose of this Pursuit?

Kai Zhang, head of Intelligent Driving at GWM, said that the deployment of the Qualcomm Ride Platform means, “GWM will be able to offer comprehensive multi-segment capabilities in our future vehicles, from driver assistance systems to high-level autonomous driving.”

And here’s the kicker: Kai Zhang went on to say, “This advanced autonomous driving technology will enable the transformation of GWM from an automaker to the ‘global mobility technology company.’”

Mobility Matters

Seems like being an automaker is so 2020.