Highlights:

-- Leading silicon and cloud providers agree to work together to further technologies aimed at streamlining the vehicle software development process -- Best-in-class learnings from both companies to help break down engineering silos and democratize accelerated development for future software-defined vehicles

Today, at IAA Mobility, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company, announced their commitment to long-term co-innovation efforts on behalf of the automotive industry. Recognizing the rapid expansion of software-defined features and functions, exponential growth of data to gain insights from, and end customers’ desires to bring new functionality to market faster, AWS and Qualcomm Technologies will combine their industry expertise to provide comprehensive development infrastructure and tools to accelerate autonomous driving and software-defined vehicle (SDV) transformation.

“As a leader in innovative automotive technologies, Qualcomm Technologies understands the necessity of offering highly scalable solutions that bring together leading-edge cloud and hardware technology to enable the highest quality performance and safety standards for automakers around the globe,” said Nakul Duggal, senior vice president and general manager, automotive & cloud computing, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “The Qualcomm® Cloud AI 100 Solution and Snapdragon Ride™ Platforms power automotive innovation for leading automakers. AWS’s breadth of services and capabilities help unlock new possibilities for transformation in the industry. Through our technology collaboration with AWS, we’ll share best practices and deliver on our joint vision of collaborative automotive innovation.”

To help democratize vehicle software development for the industry, AWS and Qualcomm Technologies are making strides to help enable automakers to experiment and integrate cloud technologies into their development processes. For instance, with Qualcomm Technologies’ software stack, which powers a vehicle’s computer vision system for advanced safety functions like automatic braking and lane assist, developers can use the benefits of the cloud to simulate, test, validate, and verify their new features and functions before moving to more traditional testing on hardware. This helps expedite the development process and aids software engineers in arriving at a viable product faster than before.

Premium luxury automakers, including the BMW Group, have worked with Qualcomm Technologies to co-develop next-generation automated driving systems based on the open, scalable and modular Snapdragon Ride Platform, which features an integrated Ride Vision software stack to enable 360-degree perception for the vehicle. Together with AWS and Qualcomm Technologies, the BMW Group’s engineers can now leverage the benefits of leading hardware, vision software, and cloud capabilities in a cohesive, integrated, end-to-end automated driving development platform.

With more than 20 years of automotive industry experience, Qualcomm Technologies is well-positioned to provide advanced solutions that support the ongoing transformation of the automotive industry, resulting in connected vehicles, autonomous driving and electrification. AWS brings its long-standing experience in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data processing and analysis, and high-performance computing. Combined, the two companies expect to experiment and integrate new insights into future automotive solutions that will change how vehicles are designed, marketed, and driven on the road.

“Software-defined development in automotive is increasingly prevalent, requiring automakers, Tier 1s and automotive developers to ramp up efforts and find novel ways of accelerating the vehicle design process,” said Wendy Bauer, general manager of Automotive and Manufacturing at AWS. “Learning from one another, while helping joint customers like BMW deliver on their visions, we’re confident that the industry will benefit for years to come. We are energized to continue uncovering these insights with our customers and co-innovators and turning them into actions that will shape the future of mobility.”