Wireless chipmaker Qualcomm (QCOM) is looking to get in on the self-driving car business — pushing to have its computer chips be used.
Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf told ReCode that its market strength on chips for smartphones and tablets could be applied to self-driving vehicles as well.
“Everyone wants to emulate what you can see in your eye,” he said. “The driverless car requires computer vision, and where that’s being developed more than anywhere is on the phone. … On the car, having computer vision enables things like parking and safety features.”
(See Google Self–Driving Car Will Have No Brakes, No Steering Wheel)
Via ReCode:
Qualcomm has had much of the high-end smartphone market to itself, at least for devices running on high-speed LTE networks. But as new technologies like wearables and in-car technologies have sought to connect to wireless phone networks, companies developing on them naturally reach out to Qualcomm.
Mollenkopf said that Qualcomm is working on technology that could be applied to all self-driving vehicles that shared the same chip intel — meaning the ability for vehicles to “talk” to one another. Or drivers to do so, for that matter.
“The amount of data that will be taken off driverless cars will be interesting from a perspective of consumer services,” he said.
These vehicle connections would use information sharing on the roadways to assist others.
