Adding mileage to its mission of accelerating its presence in the automotive industry through the deployment of its digital chassis and smart technology at leading manufacturers, Qualcomm Technologies has expanded its business relationship with Renault Group, with new vehicles integrating its Snapdragon cockpit and connectivity solutions through the car giant’s Ampere’s business unit.
In a bid to jumpstart its efforts in technology, Renault Group launched Ampere in November 2023, said at the time to be the first European player purely focused on the development of intelligent electric vehicles and software. With a workforce of 11,000 employees, 35% of whom are engineers, Ampere runs essentially as a tech company within a manufacturing company.
A key business aim for Ampere is to shatter the traditional car industry dynamic, whereby the ability to foster a relationship with buyers is limited once they drive their new car off the forecourt. The goal for Ampere is to make real its vision to create a next-generation platform for vehicles, starting in 2026.
With a software-defined vehicle platform, Ampere and Renault are confident they can deliver new features through over-the-air updates. The primary benefit is how much nimbler they will be when it comes to improving the car.
Ampere chief software officer Henry Bzeih has been tasked with executing the company’s vision of the software-designed vehicle (SDV), allowing companies to upgrade their cars in much the same way as you would add an app to a smartphone.
In a recent blog post, Bzeih noted that the key ingredient that has been missing in the automotive industry over the past century is a constant connection between the vehicle and the customer. “We design the vehicle, we build the vehicle, you go to the dealership, you buy the vehicle, and then,‘bye, bye’, right?” he wrote. “You may see the dealer when there’s a problem, then you’re done.”
He also believes that the evolution of the car experience is critical to building new bridges with customers: “That’s what a software-defined vehicle does. It creates winning moments for customers. It brings brands closer to them … It creates amazing experiences.”
Bzeih sees SDVs as offering the potential to take advantage of existing hardware in a car, such as the lighting system, infotainment console and advanced driver assistance systems, and stringing them together in a new way. “You want to surprise and delight customers,” he said. “For customers today, it’s about personalisation, especially with Gen Z and Millennials.”
For its part, Qualcomm believes a high-performance SDV platform represents the next step for vehicles, shaking up how they are designed and maintained, as well as radically improving the driver and passenger experience. By adding software to the mix, the vehicle becomes an ecosystem, creating value from a business and customer intimacy perspective.
At CES in January 2024, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said the company’s overarching strategy would be to tap into the growing world of artificial intelligence (AI) in local devices, with automotive being a key use case, to the point where intelligent vehicles would likely form the next space of computing with in-car systems based on its Snapdragon Digital Chassis platform.
As part of the general long-standing collaboration between technology and automotive companies, Ampere and Renault have also been users of the Snapdragon Ride advanced driver assistance system (ADAS).
Ampere and Renault see 2026 as a big year, with the launch of software-defined vehicle platforms representing a wave of vehicles with a radically improved experience. Bzeih said the company has plans for multiple cars – consumer and commercial – that will ride on the SDV platform, allowing Renault and Ampere to offer new capabilities to the mass market, and bringing to reality what would have been deemed sci-fi just a decade ago. “This is going to change the world,” he concluded.
