Shift: A podcast about mobility · Automotive News

Ahead of IAA, Anshuman Saxena unpacks Qualcomm’s big driver-assistance ambitions

August 31, 2025·37 min·1 clip

BMW Neue Klasse will unveil Snapdragon Ride platform for highway and urban autonomous systems

This episode features Pete Bigelow interviewing Anshuman Saxena, Qualcomm's Vice President of ADAS and Automated Driving Products, ahead of the IAA Mobility show. Saxena previews Qualcomm's upcoming joint unveiling with BMW of a new driver-assistance system for the Neue Klasse platform. The conversation centers on Qualcomm's strategic push into advanced automotive technology and its partnership with the German automaker. Qualcomm and BMW have co-developed an ADAS stack for highway and urban driving systems, set to debut in Munich. The collaboration involves approximately 800 engineers from both companies working on sensor fusion, compute hardware, and a vision perception stack. Qualcomm contributes its Snapdragon Ride system-on-chips (SoCs) and an in-house vision stack technology acquired from Arriver. The system is designed to scale across vehicle segments, from entry-level to premium models, under Qualcomm's "Ride Assist" and "Ride Pilot" product families. Saxena notes Qualcomm's automotive business pipeline is worth $45 billion, with a third in the electric vehicle space. He references the competitive landscape, including BYD's "God's Eye" system in China, where Qualcomm also has a significant presence. A key insight is that this technology is built with formal safety guardrails, ensuring AI-driven functions like automated lane changes still adhere to strict safety protocols even if training data suggests otherwise. The system's architecture is designed to potentially support Level 3 automation, incorporating redundancy concepts with separate sensor paths for arbitration. Saxena reveals that AI is evolving beyond voice assistants to become the core user interface, enabling contextual interactions where the car can explain its maneuvers or respond to compound commands. He emphasizes that a major advantage for automakers is reduced development cost and faster time-to-market by using Qualcomm's scalable platform. The tone is an educational and forward-looking interview between an industry reporter and a knowledgeable executive. The style is conversational but dense with technical and strategic details about automotive semiconductors and software. This episode is ideal for listeners interested in the business and technology of autonomous driving, automotive semiconductors, and competitive strategies between tech suppliers and automakers. Those seeking light entertainment or non-technical automotive news might find the detailed discussion too specialized.

As heard by us

A clear look at Qualcomm's effort to make driver assistance practical.

Pete Bigelow keeps the focus on Qualcomm's long run in ADAS and automated driving, with Anshuman Saxena, Qualcomm's vice president and head of ADAS and Automated Driving Products, giving a preview of what the company plans to show with BMW on the Neue Klasse platform at IAA…

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You want the story behind Qualcomm's BMW Neue Klasse ADAS preview.

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