Qualcomm partners with auto industry

by Martha DeGrasse

Without naming its automotive partners, Qualcomm said it will team up with car manufacturers and automotive ecosystem participants in Germany, France, Korea, China, Japan and the U.S.

The company said its the 9150 C-V2X chipset is set to be commercially available in the second half of this year and commercial solutions based on the 9150 should follow shortly thereafter.

LG Electronics, Continental, Ficosa-Panasonic, Lear and Valeo are among Qualcomm's automotive partners. The company said system integrators Sasken and Thundersoft will help expedite the deployment of cellular vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology.

Qualcomm's drive to commercialize its cellular automotive chipset comes as the company is renewing its effort to buy leading automotive chipmaker NXP. NXP is heavily invested in dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) for vehicles, based on the 802.11 standards. DSRC and cellular have been seen as two competing technologies for connecting cars to the internet, but if Qualcomm buys NXP some of the top talent in both these areas will be under one roof.

For now, Qualcomm appears laser-focused on cellular chips for self-driving cars. The company has lined up a pantheon of cellular module manufacturers to support its effort, including Gemalto, LG Innotek, Quectel, Sierra Wireless, Telit, WNC and ZTE. Software stack and application providers Cohda Wireless, Commsignia and Savari are also part of Qualcomm's wide-ranging partners.

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ANALYST INSIGHT

The internet of things is not a new market, and it's not just one market, according to the analysts at Mobile Experts. The team has spent the past several years studying the top vertical markets for IoT services, including the automotive industry, the power industry and healthcare. In addition, Mobile Experts has spent time with companies in the many horizontal segments of this market: those providing connectivity and data analysis for the internet of things. The firm concludes that while there are currently more than 65 competing IoT technologies, the market will consolidate around roughly 20 of these.

Mobile Experts interviewed semiconductor companies, service providers, and corporate end users to compile its detailed IoT device shipment forecast . This report forecasts IoT device shipments for all the major connectivity technologies, including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LTE, 5G, GSM, NB-IoT, PLC, LPWA, RFID, satellite, and proprietary RF.