JAKARTA - General Motors on Thursday, January 6 announced that a trio of chips from Qualcomm Inc will power the "Ultra Cruise" driver assistance feature in their luxury Cadillac sedan next year.
Qualcomm's chips will provide computing power for the all-electric Celestiq, the company's planned flagship sedan. GM states that the Ultra Cruise will allow hands-free driving on both city highways and expressways.
In fact this feature is available to reach up to 95% of roads in the United States and Canada. This new feature, goes beyond GM's current Super Cruise feature which only works on the highway.
"It's a supervised system, so you still have to pay attention to the steering. But basically what we're doing is providing a hands-free experience to drivers in a much larger domain," said Jason Ditman, chief engineer of Ultra Cruise as quoted by Reuters.
At the heart of the system will be a computer the size of two laptops sandwiched together. GM will provide the software to make the system work, and Qualcomm will provide the key chips — two processor chips and then a chip designed to speed up certain functions.
The deal is a milestone for Qualcomm, which dominates chips for mobile phones and has diversified its business. While Qualcomm has many deals with automakers to provide chips for infotainment hubs and 5G connectivity, GM is the first automaker to use Qualcomm's "Snapdragon Ride" chips for self-driving features.
Qualcomm is now competing with rivals Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) and Intel Corp's Mobileye to win deals with automakers for self-driving chips. The chip's energy efficiency is a key requirement for automakers in electric vehicles, where computers have to compete for limited battery life with the drive train.
Qualcomm aims to use history-making chips for phones, where battery life is a key selling point, to lure automakers.
Ditman GM won't reveal how much power the Ultra Cruise computer uses, but it's an air-cooled device, meaning the chip likely consumes less power and generates less heat than rival offerings that require liquid cooling.
"We are very aware of our power consumption," said Ditman.
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