The competition in smart cars has entered the "AI Agent" era. Qualcomm and Google announced an enhanced strategic partnership, integrating Google's AI Agent deeply into Qualcomm's Snapdragon Digital Chassis, jointly developing edge-cloud collaborative technology solutions for next-generation smart cars. This move marks the transition of their collaboration from "operating system + chip" to a new stage of "AI-native cockpit," with Chinese new energy brands like Leapmotor becoming early beneficiaries.

 AI Agents in Cars: From "Voice Assistant" to "Proactive Service Partner"

The core breakthrough of this collaboration is that Google's AI Agent will be embedded into the vehicle system for the first time, leveraging the powerful computing power of the Snapdragon platform, achieving:

- Multi-modal interaction: combining voice, vision, and sensor data to understand complex commands like "dim it after looking at the rearview mirror";

- Personalized services: automatically adjusting seats, temperature control, and music based on user habits, and anticipating needs (such as suggesting departure times when commutes are congested);

- Autonomous task execution: completing cross-app workflows like "book a restaurant + navigation + synchronize calendar" on behalf of users.

This goes far beyond the traditional "Q&A" model of voice assistants, making the car truly become a mobile AI agent capable of understanding, reasoning, and executing tasks.

 A Decade of Collaboration Evolved: From Android Auto to AI-Native Cockpits

Since the collaboration began in 2016, Qualcomm and Google have driven the global adoption of Android Automotive OS. Over 75 million vehicles now use Qualcomm's Snapdragon cockpit platforms, including mainstream brands such as BMW, General Motors, and NIO. This upgrade sees both parties shift their focus to AI agents and edge-cloud collaborative architecture, ensuring efficient division of labor for complex AI tasks between in-vehicle chips (edge) and the cloud, balancing real-time performance and intelligent depth.

 Chinese New Energy Brands Lead the Way: Leapmotor Launches Dual Snapdragon 8797 Domain Controllers

The Chinese market has become the forefront for this technological deployment. Leapmotor announced that its next-generation central computing platform will adopt dual Qualcomm Snapdragon 8797 chips, building a high-performance central domain controller, fully supporting Google's AI Agent and Qualcomm's automotive ecosystem. This solution can achieve:

- Cross-domain integration: unified scheduling of cockpit, intelligent driving, and body control;

- Continuous OTA evolution: AI capabilities upgrading with cloud model updates;

- Personalized experiences: each family member enjoys tailored space configuration and services upon entering the car.

In addition, brands such as XPeng and Zeekr have also been reported to be evaluating similar solutions.

AIbase Insight: The Intelligent Era of Cars Enters a New "Agent War"

As the AI competition in phones shifts to "who has a smarter Agent," the automotive battlefield is also upgrading simultaneously. The collaboration between Qualcomm and Google essentially replicates the success of the Android ecosystem into the automotive field—building a moat through an open platform, powerful AI, and chip computing power.