Ford to Ensure Its Cars can Talk to Everything Else through Qualcomm Collaboration

Ford and chip manufacturer Qualcomm have jointly announced a partnership at CES 2018 to collaborate on cellular vehicle-to-everything (C2VX) technology. The partners will team up for the design and implementation of connective communication technology that will help cars to connect up to things like smart traffic lights, street signs, bikes, roads and other elements of infrastructure.

Cellular connectivity is going to be a key factor in Ford’s development of autonomous cars and mobility services, including the AV network and the partners platform that Ford has plans to implement in the future. Ford has also unveiled plans for a cloud-based connected smart city platform that it hopes will turn into an open standard upon which cites, transportation providers, other automakers and more can collaborate and develop.

Ford has entered into the partnership with Qualcomm with a view to making this kind of connectivity possible at the global level. Qualcomm has already made major progress in this regard with broad 5G deployment, and has a lot of expertise in mobile and IoT connectivity. This makes Qualcomm the perfect choice for Ford as a partner to help it develop the technology needed to ensure it has the ability to communicate with all the components of a smart city.