Qualcomm announces C-V2X chipset focused on handling vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, and vehicle-to-pedestrian communications
Qualcomm's 9150 C-V2X chipset and reference design should bring automakers one step closer to deploying the communications systems needed for fully autonomous vehicles.
Context & Ripple Effects
Qualcomm’s 9150 reference design marks an early automotive connectivity layer in a product arc that later expanded into an end-to-end autonomous-driving platform and cloud-linked vehicle services. The company’s later Autotalks acquisition also ties its automotive strategy to dedicated safety communications silicon.
The significance is not a standalone radio: the chipset addresses communications among vehicles, road infrastructure and pedestrians, giving automakers a component for the connected-vehicle side of an autonomous-driving system.
First-order effects
- Automakers evaluating connected-driving systems gain Qualcomm’s 9150 chipset and reference design as a starting point for vehicle-to-vehicle, infrastructure and pedestrian communications.
- Qualcomm extends its automotive offering beyond in-car processing toward the communications layer required by connected vehicles.
Second-order effects
- Qualcomm’s later Drive Pilot platform can combine the communications foothold with autonomous-driving software and services, increasing the value of selling automakers a broader vehicle stack rather than a single component.
- Specialist automotive-safety communications suppliers face a better-resourced Qualcomm in a category it later reinforced through Autotalks.
Third-order effects
- If automakers standardize on integrated suppliers, vehicle connectivity, driving assistance and cockpit computing are likely to be bought as increasingly connected parts of one automotive technology stack.
- The pattern points to automotive chip competition shifting from individual in-car components toward long-lived platform relationships with vehicle makers.
The trend: Automotive silicon vendors are assembling integrated autonomy stacks that join connectivity, driving functions and in-car computing.