Neural processing engine inside new app provides driver assistance

Nexar has launched the first driving safety application leveraging the Qualcomm Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine (NPE) SDK. The Nexar app will now be able to provide advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), including unprecedented real-time forward-collision warnings and other life-saving features, to hundreds of millions of vehicles whose drivers own Android phones or have Android-based in-vehicle systems.

Until now, Android devices were incapable of running AI processes internally, efficiently, and in real-time, making them unsuitable for driver assistance. Thanks to the Snapdragon NPE SDK, Nexar now can efficiently run its AI processes directly on users’ endpoint devices, which are powered by premium tier Snapdragon Mobile Platforms, and analyze a driving scenario 15 times per second. This allows Nexar to bring the company’s full range of safety services, that have already helped lead to a 24% reduction in car collisions within its network, to all drivers.

The Snapdragon NPE SDK is designed to allow deep learning and AI to be executed directly on the CPU, GPU and DSP of Snapdragon 800 and 600 tier Android mobile devices, instead of on the cloud, bringing the revolution of AI to edge devices, and providing a wealth of new opportunities for software developers in the automotive space.

“The Snapdragon NPE SDK unlocks critical computing power with exceptional battery efficiency, opening the door to mission-critical AI automotive applications on the Snapdragon mobile platform,” said Bruno Fernandez-Ruiz, Co-Founder and CTO of Nexar. “With this newfound ability to run AI efficiently on Android phones, we are one step closer to making safety a commodity available in all cars, both old and new, and ridding the world of car collisions.”

'The Snapdragon NPE SDK is designed to support a broad range of high-performance AI-based applications to run efficiently on mobile and edge devices powered by Snapdragon,” said Gary Brotman, Director of Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Nexar’s application of our technology to provide road safety functionalities is a great example of how developers can easily integrate AI into their mobile products to tackle real-world problems at scale.'