Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite SDV SoC platforms are equipped with a new CPU that has been specially developed for the automotive industry and is the company’s fastest CPU to date, according to Qualcomm. Cockpit Elite is designed for advanced digital cockpits and Snapdragon Ride Elite for automated driving. A flexible architecture also gives car manufacturers the ability to seamlessly combine both digital cockpit and automated driving functions on the same SoC – a capability available on Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions.
The integrated dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) Hexagon, developed for multimodal AI, promises 12 times higher performance compared to previous cockpit platforms and enables real-time processing of external environmental and cabin data. The NPU in the Snapdragon Ride Elite is equipped with Transformer accelerators and vector engines, as well as support for mixed precision, and is designed to deliver low latency, highly accurate and efficient end-to-end transformations with optimal performance.
The heterogeneous platform runs multiple applications seamlessly and without performance degradation, providing concurrency and multitasking for numerous cameras, sensors, rich user experiences and advanced AI-powered audio with virtualization.
When developing the platforms, care was taken to support context-dependent applications. They enable hands-free automated driving that anticipates the driver’s needs, real-time driver monitoring and improved object detection for a smoother and safer ride. The improved Qualcomm Adreno graphics processor is said to offer performance improvements by a factor of 3 with advanced rendering capabilities to meet the demands of gaming, multimedia and dynamic driver information.
The platform SoCs meet the automotive safety standards for ASIL-D systems. They are equipped with a dedicated controller for setting up a safety island and a robust hardware architecture for isolation and trouble-free operation. Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite will be available for sampling from 2025. Technology collaborations are already in place with leading automotive manufacturers such as Li Auto and Mercedes-Benz AG, who intend to use the Elite SoCs in future commercial vehicles. (jr)
