Chris Borroni-Bird is Vice President, Strategic Development at Qualcomm and believes the future car will be an ‘ACE’ vehicle – automated, connected and electrified. In the long-term, he believes that each aspect will reach its extreme – with the potential for automated to mean fully automated, like the Google car; pure battery electric vehicles (EVs) with the range and performance and features of a traditional car which will be wirelessly charged; and connectivity ranging from something as simple as allowing drivers to access map information via their smartphone in their car, all the way up to vehicles that are connected to each other, to the infrastructure, the Cloud, pedestrians and cyclists, and devices.
As the vehicle becomes more automated, connected and electrified, Borroni-Bird explained that it becomes more synergistic with the products that Qualcomm supports today which are connected, electrified devices: “We see a lot of opportunity to enable future vehicles to address safety and congestion, as well as the energy and environmental concerns facing the automotive industry.”
Connectivity
Qualcomm aims to enable both the vehicle side as well as the non-vehicle side of connectivity, which Borroni-Bird notes can help to create connected infrastructure smartphone connectivity to the car. “In a sense, connectivity is like the first among equals; it basically enables so many other things,” said Borroni-Bird. “It can help to improve or enable autonomous operation if you can complement sensing technology with connectivity, and our company can improve the robustness of the collision avoidance system in the car.”
From the connectivity side, Qualcomm is rolling out 4G LTE to support OEMs that are looking to implement it into their vehicles. “We’re also developing dedicated short range communications to support Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS),” he said.
The supplier has also recently demonstrated developments in safety technology, based on a scenario where a pedestrian is walking in a parking lot towards a car that is about to reverse out of a parking spot. “While the back-up camera comes on when the driver reverses, when they’re looking at the display they don’t see the pedestrian if they aren’t in the field of view of the camera,” he noted. “But Qualcomm has been working on technology that detects when a pedestrian gets close enough to the car that a potential collision is imminent, and the pedestrian also gets a warning on their smartphone showing that there is a car reversing, so it works both ways to increase safety and decrease the risk of an accident.”
Because of these possibilities, Borroni-Bird explained that there are many opportunities for communications technology to complement the sensors that are increasingly installed on cars, giving them the ability to effectively see around corners, improving the accuracy and detection ability of the collision avoidance system. “Cameras and sensors will definitely become more commonplace on cars in the future, but they have their limitations. Qualcomm is looking to compliment them with connectivity, and improve the robustness of the system for very little extra cost, but it’s a very reliable and valuable system. There are still many challenges, but I think it’s a very interesting concept, especially as smartphones become more ubiquitous.”
Electrification
Borroni-Bird also explained that there are many cases where connectivity and electrification can work together to benefit consumers: “In a sense, connectivity can have a benefit on energy and environment, as well as safety, traffic flows, finding parking and finding the vehicle.”
Convenience is also an important consideration for Qualcomm, and the company has been developing wireless, or inductive, charging for many years now. Borroni-Bird explained that it is a compelling way to charge EVs, BEVs and plug-in hybrids: “Initially, these cars will maintain the conductive charging port as a back-up, but over time, possibly quite quickly, consumers are going to migrate towards wanting to wirelessly charge, especially if vehicles can park automatically. They certainly wouldn’t want to then have to chase after the car and plug it in.
“We believe that, in the near term, consumers who buy a car for their own private use will value that ability to charge wirelessly at home. And as public charging systems take off and you have car sharing programmes that are electric, like Autolib in Paris, EV car sharing programmes will also benefit from charging wirelessly. The idea of wireless charging for these autonomous EV programmes that are taking off as pilots is just a natural fit with that.”
Challenges and obstacles
The biggest question mark around the adoption for wireless charging, explained Borroni-Bird, is likely to be the adoption of EVs themselves. “I think once electric vehicles are adopted, the case for wireless charging is pretty compelling and I think we’re seeing more and more interest in EVs, too,” he said.
He continued, “If you think about where mobility is most of a challenge, it’s in the emerging markets and in the major cities around the world, and in those environments EVs make a lot of sense, both in terms of air quality issues and also the need for performance and range is less in those areas than in a car that has to go on the highway for long distances. So EVs are a perfect fit for urban mobility, which is where most of the miles driven will take place in the future.”
Borroni-Bird will be speaking at Megatrends USA 2015. His presentation, entitled, ‘Enabling electric and connected vehicles’, will outline the company’s expertise in both fields, and the future trends in the connected, electrified car.
Rachel Boagey
