The Snapdragon 8295 chip has 30 Tops of NPU computing power for AI learning, which is twice that of Apple's A15 and 8 times that of the 8155 chip.

(Jidu CEO Xia Yiping. Credit: Baidu)

Chinese mainstream automakers are generally using Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips in the cockpits of their current flagship models, with the 8155 dominating this year. Baidu's car-making arm Jidu Auto is booking Qualcomm's next-generation chip for its first model.

Baidu, Jidu and Qualcomm today jointly announced that the first Jidu model, expected to go on sale in 2023, will feature an intelligent digital cockpit system powered by Baidu and Qualcomm.

The system is based on Qualcomm's 4th generation Snapdragon Automotive Digital Cockpit Platform - 8295, which features the next generation of intelligent cockpit systems and software solutions developed by Jidu and Baidu. The chip is manufactured on a 5nm process.

The product's concept is expected to be unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show next April, according to their statement.

Chinese automakers are now commonly choosing Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8155 chip for their flagship models, which is the third generation of Snapdragon's digital cockpit platform, built on a 7nm process.

The 4th generation Snapdragon automotive cockpit platform is designed to deliver a superior in-car user experience as well as safety, comfort and reliability, raising the bar for digital cockpit solutions in the automotive industry, their statement said.

Compared to the 8155 chip, the 8295 chip offers significant improvements in high-performance computing and AI processing.

It comes pre-integrated with the Qualcomm Snapdragon Automotive 5G platform that supports C-V2X technology to support the high bandwidth required for seamless streaming, OTA upgrades and multi-gigabit upload and download capabilities.

The 8295 chip's NPU for AI learning has 30 Tops of computing power, twice that of Apple's A15 and eight times that of the 8155 chip.

"We're excited about Jidu's first product to be the first production vehicle powered by the 4th Generation Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platform in 2023," said Jidu CEO Yiping Xia, adding, "Jidu will quickly implement advanced intelligent cockpit technologies, bring these technologies to the market immediately and create reliable, self-evolvable automobile robots."

Jidu was officially launched on March 2, and the first vehicle is expected to be unveiled at the 2022 Beijing Auto Show, when the model will be a concept production vehicle. In an optimistic scenario, the model could be available for pre-order within the next year, according to information previously released by the company.

Earlier this month, Zhu Jiang, who previously served as vice president of Nio and head of Ford China's Mustang Mach-E program, joined Jidu as vice president and head of user development and operations.

Zhu's immediate goal after joining Jidu is to build a marketing, channel and after-sales system from scratch to accelerate Jidu's "car robot" to market, according to local media reports.

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