Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon Cockpit Elite And Ride Elite To Fuel AI Assisted Cars

Qualcomm has just announced its latest intelligent automotive platforms, the Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite. The big news here is that both systems will be powered by the company's Oryon CPU architecture, which promises up to 3x faster CPU and 12x greater AI performance versus its predecessors, among numerous other improvements. In other words, expect better computing power for enhanced vehicular safety, automated driving data handling, and in-car infotainment.

At the Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii, Qualcomm has its new Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite automotive platforms, both powered the Qualcomm Oryon CPU architecture, on hand for all to see. Compared to the current fourth generation platforms, Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite promise more compute and AI performance, enhanced network capabilities, up to 3x more graphical performance (via an upgraded Adreno GPU), as well as increased performance for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and infotainment processing.

Qualcomm has become a leader in centralized computing for many of today's software-defined automobiles. However, with the lean towards more AI integration with passenger interfaces and driver assistance systems, the company rebalanced their platforms to better address market needs. Nakul Duggal, group manager for Qualcomm automotive, industrial, and cloud stated in a news release, "With our strongest performing compute, graphics and AI capabilities, coupled with industry leading power efficiency and cutting-edge software enablement for digital cockpits and automated driving, these new Elite Snapdragon automotive platforms address the industry's needs for higher compute levels, empowering automakers to redefine automotive experiences for their customers.”

Some of the highlights of the announcement can be broken up into the following areas:

Increased AI Performance

An enhanced Neural Processing Unit (NPU) within Ride Elite has been developed with multimodal AI workloads in mind. Qualcomm claims the system has as much as 12x greater performance over the previous Cockpit. This could enable real-time "smart" decision-making that adapts to the needs of its passengers. Imagine your car proactively anticipating weather changes in relation to where you're driving and adjusting the climate control temperature or activating the headlights as needed. 

More Powerful Centralized processing

Even the best in-car systems experience app stutters, UI lag, and the occasional crashes. Under the new platform, the goal is that multiple applications can run concurrently without a perceivable loss in performance, all while handling even more complex background tasks, such as AI-based audio processing, sensors, and cameras (more on that in a bit).

Better Power Efficiency

Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon mobile platform reportedly offers more than 40% better power efficiency than previous Qualcomm offerings, which means Cockpit and Ride Elite should reduce vehicle energy consumption, which in turn could potentially prolong the life of the vehicle's batteries and improve sustainability.

Intuitive UX

In terms of the user experience, there are two-fold benefits to the improved processing power. Firstly, the more capable Adreno GPU can provide better graphics and smoother animations for the car's displays, HUDs, and gaming, and multimedia. Secondly, Cockpit and Ride Elite can support context-aware apps, which means the systems should provide better automation, monitoring, and object detection.

Enhanced Safety

The Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite platforms are designed to meet automotive safety standards for ASIL-D, which is the highest level for risk safety systems.

Camera Subsystem Upgrades

The Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite boast a more capable Image Signal Processor (ISP) that can provide clearer, more responsive visuals in extreme driving situations, such as adjusting contrast in direct sunlight or visibility in the dark. The suite has the bandwidth to support more than 40 multimodal sensor feeds, which includes a maximum of 20 high-resolution HDR cameras used for in-cabin monitoring and 360-degree coverage.

The Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Ride Elite are actually part of the Snapdragon ecosystem of vehicle-related systems collectively known as the Snapdragon Digital Chassis. Aside from the two we've talked about so far, there's Snapdragon Auto Connectivity (which helps connect cars to the cloud/internet and other vehicles) and Snapdragon Car-to-Cloud Services (which is how manufacturers provide a secure means of dropping over-the-air updates and/or paid services).

Qualcomm is one of the current leaders in this segment. Many of the cars on the road today or currently in the works use at least one part of Digital Chassis package. Among them are BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes, Stellantis, Volkswagen, and Volvo. (Digital Chassis can also be applied to ATVs, e-bikes, and motorcycles, so obviously this list isn't exhaustive.) 

As for availability, we'll have to wait perhaps till late 2025 or early 2026 before we see Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Ride Elite in production vehicles. While both chipsets are open for sampling in 2025, there is no set date(s) on when they will actually appear on the road.