What simply occurred? Qualcomm has agreed to buy Israeli-based automotive security startup Autotalks. Financial phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed however sources acquainted with the settlement instructed Ztoog that Qualcomm is paying between $350 million and $400 million for the corporate.
Autotalks was based in 2008 and focuses on vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication applied sciences – that’s, methods that assist a automobile talk with something that might have an effect on it, or that it might have an effect on.
Qualcomm stated it plans to implement Autotalks’ standalone security options into its Snapdragon Digital Chassis product portfolio. Nakul Duggal, SVP and GM of Qualcomm’s automotive division, famous they’ve been investing in V2X R&D and deployment since 2017 and consider that because the business continues to mature, such options can be essential for person security and sensible transportation methods.
Scott Miller, a General Motors VP that works with automobile software program and working methods, believes V2X purposes maintain a number of promising advantages that, together with the continued electrification of autos, might rework the shopper expertise.
Others together with Continental, Quectel, Renault, and Harman additionally spoke positively concerning the two corporations coming collectively.
It’s inevitable that expertise is finally going to lead to an answer that replaces human drivers behind the wheel. We are already properly on the trail however within the grand scheme of issues – to attain some extent the place each automobile on the highway is managed by expertise and executed so safely – there may be nonetheless an infinite quantity of labor to be executed.
What precisely will that future appear like? Will human-driven automobiles finally be banned outright? It appears possible given our unpredictability, particularly in a well-oiled machine like a completely autonomous transportation system the place the whole lot is timed completely for optimum effectivity. The proper to drive will not be the type of factor that everybody is simply going to quit in a single day however over an extended time frame, society might be conditioned to change their opinion on driving and look at it as a problem reasonably than a alternative.
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