This morning saw yet another new deal inked in the ongoing “auto tech wars” where companies race to develop learning and observation technologies for self-driving vehicles, and new prototypes actually hit the roads around the world.
Specifically, chip maker Qualcomm and a company called Veoneer have formally agreed to co-produce a type of advanced driving assistance system (ADAS) that they started talking about last August.
Stakeholders describe the Arriver systems developed at Veoneer as a “complete perception and drive policy software stack” and explain that Veoneer’s technology will be built in to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Road platform, which Qualcomm describes this way:
“The Qualcomm® Snapdragon Ride™ Platform is one of the automotive industry’s most advanced, scalable and fully customizable automated driving platforms. It will facilitate automotive suppliers and automakers flexibility to deploy the safety, convenience and autonomous driving features in demand today–with the ability to scale in the future.”
Promoting this technology, spokespersons cite performance, scalability and a “revolutionary software stack,” claiming that a Snapdragon Ride Autonomous Stack “combines with the hardware to provide one of the most robust vehicle perception and driving brains available.”
“Today’s agreement with Qualcomm Technologies and the creation of Arriver are key milestones in Veoneer’s development,” Veoneer CEO Jan Carlson said in a statement today.
As for financial changes, Veoneer has doubled year-over-year and was up 2.8% today. In August, when top brass hatched the idea of working with Qualcomm on ADAS, the Veoneer firm’s stock was worth about $11 per share. Today it’s near $28.
Keep an eye on these sorts of innovations as you move a portfolio the rapid change of an agile industry. By having a finger on the pulse of the self-driving evolution curve, investors can cash in on the sea changes that bring us closer to motoring on down the road letting a computer do the driving.