LIVE FROM CES 2020, LAS VEGAS: Qualcomm kicked its connected car plans into high gear, unveiling a new car-to-cloud service and an autonomous driving platform meant to speed adoption of the technology in commercial vehicles.

The former is designed to work with the company’s existing Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit, and Snapdragon Automotive 4G and 5G platforms, and will allow automakers to connect vehicles to the cloud to keep cockpit and telematics systems current via OTA updates.

Qualcomm said it will also allow car manufacturers to add capabilities over time, enabling them to create new revenue streams during a vehicle’s lifetime by introducing on-demand and pay-as-you-go features.

The car-to-cloud service will be commercially available in H2 2020.

Perhaps more ambitious is Qualcomm’s other connected car play, the Snapdragon Ride autonomous vehicle platform.

Executives said the system encompasses hardware, software and AI capabilities, and is scalable to meet the needs of varying applications. At the entry level, the platform is capable of 30 trillion operations per second to enable active vehicle safety systems, but at its peak can support self-driving use cases with 700 trillion operations per second.

Nakul Duggal, Qualcomm SVP of product management, said in a statement the platform is aimed at “accelerating the deployment of high-performance autonomous driving to mass-market vehicles”. However, the company acknowledged it will still be several years before cars using the system hit the road.

Snapdragon Ride will be offered to manufacturers for development in H1 2020, with commercial vehicles based on the platform expected to be in production by 2023.

PC progress
The company also debuted a new 5G laptop with Lenovo, the Yoga 5G, which will run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx chip, and be compatible with mmWave and sub-6GHz frequencies.

Johnson Jia, SVP and GM of consumer business for Lenovo’s Intelligent Devices Group, said during a press conference the addition of the technology to its new PC means faster file transfers, better content streaming and gaming experiences, and more secure connectivity for users.

Qualcomm president Cristiano Amon (pictured) pointed to the new device as evidence of the company’s commitment to advancing the PC segment: “We are focused on making PCs connected devices, redefining the experience for you to have on a PC what you have out of a mobile phone today.”

Lenovo’s Yoga 5G will be available in Q2, with prices starting at $1,499.