Qualcomm wants to make it easier to build semi-autonomous cars

Qualcomm believes it can widen the field for semi-autonomous driving features, and it's launching a new platform to make that happen. The company has unveiled a Snapdragon Ride Vision platform that combines a 4-nanometer system-on-chip with Arriver's computer vision software to give automakers an "open, scalable and modular" way to build Level 2 driver assists and Level 3 partial autonomy into their cars.

Snapdragon Ride Vision can help cars detect road geometry, pedestrians and other cars using 8MP wide-angle cameras. It can also handle driver monitoring (to keep your hands or eyes focused on driving) and perception for near-field parking cameras. More importantly, the system is flexible car designers can customize it to fit new vehicles and update features over the air.

The platform won't be ready for vehicle production until 2024. That's a long time to wait, particularly when Intel's Mobileye and NVIDIA are teasing chips capable of full self-driving. Still, Qualcomm might have an edge simply by making automated driving features more accessible. Snapdragon Ride Vision works with "virtually all" car price ranges and categories, Qualcomm said this could be key to semi-autonomy in cars where the tech was previously impractical.

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