- Qualcomm has just announced the acquisition of the Israeli startup Autotalks
- This develops V2X chips that allow a vehicle to communicate with other vehicles (or its environment) to prevent accidents
- V2X chips will be integrated into Qualcomm’s automotive platform
- The acquisition has been praised by industry players including Renault and General Motors
Qualcomm is best known for its Snapdragon chips for smartphones. But the American company is present in various and varied sectors, including the automotive sector. Qualcomm does not manufacture cars, but does offer its technologies for connected vehicles. Among its products is the Snapdragon digital chassis platform. And it will soon be beefed up with products from Autotalks, a company whose takeover has just been formalized by Qualcomm.
Autotalks is a “fabless” company that designs very special chips for cars, called V2X or “Vehicle to Everything” communication chips. In essence, this type of chip allows a vehicle to communicate with other vehicles or with its environment in order to prevent accidents, for example by alerting the driver to objects that are not in their field of vision.
V2X: the future of road safety?
This Israeli company has been working on this type of chip since 2009. And since 2017, Qualcomm has been one of its investors. Today, Qualcomm believes that the automotive market is mature enough and that a V2X-like architecture will be needed to enhance road safety. And the acquisition should also accelerate the commercialization of this technology.
“We share Autotalks decades of experience and commitment to developing V2X technologies and products with a focus on solving real-world road user safety issues. We look forward to working together to deliver global V2X solutions that will help accelerate time to market and enable mass adoption of this very important security technology.”said Nakul Duggal senior vice president at Qualcomm.
General Motors and Renault interested
The American company indicates that it will integrate Autotalks technologies, already ready for production, into its Snapdragon Digital Chassis offer. Moreover, this acquisition was congratulated by some players in the industry, including the Renault group and General Motors. Scott Miller, vice-president at the American manufacturer, indicates for example that the uses of the V2X chip are numerous. He also explains that the transition to the electric car opens the way to innovation in the automobile.
“The Snapdragon digital chassis has played a pivotal role in introducing Renault’s next generation of software-defined vehicles”said Thierry Cammal, global vice president of the alliance software factory at Groupe Renault. “As connectivity is more imperative than ever to advance software-defined vehicle architectures, we commend Qualcomm Technologies and Autotalks for joining forces to support reliable and high-performance V2X solutions for the automotive market.”
In other words, there are already potential customers for this technology which Qualcomm has just announced the acquisition. However, no amount was mentioned. However, our colleagues at TechCrunch quote sources indicating that to buy Autotalks, Qualcomm would have paid between 350 and 400 million dollars.
