Qualcomm’s Auto Business Taps Self-Driving With BMW Snapdragon Ride Pilot
Here's why the timing is good.
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The market has shifted from one embracing the growing likelihood of Fed rate cuts, to one pondering why the Fed may need to cut interest rates. Unsurprisingly, President Trump weighed in on Truth Social, saying Powell was once again “too-late,” but as we’ve discussed with you, given the trend in inflation data, the Fed was going to need to see further erosion in the jobs market. We saw that in the three-month moving average; look at the jobs data that we shared with you earlier today.
Remember, we purposely left room to maneuver following our recent additions of shares of Marvell MRVL and Palantir PLTR earlier this week. As the dust settles from today, and we get the August CPI and PPI data, we’ll plot our next move.
Self-Driving Cars Speeding Up?
In the meantime, we are seeing Qualcomm QCOM shares outperform the market today. Some may think that ties to Foxconn’s August revenue report, but a more likely cause is the news that Qualcomm and BMW Group introduced Snapdragon Ride Pilot. This is a new automated driving system resulting from a three-year collaborative effort and supports basic driver assistance to advanced autopilot for highway and city driving.
The timing for that announcement is rather good, and we say this because the Trump administration is taking steps to make it easier for automakers to deploy self-driving cars. The U.S. Department of Transportation said it’s planning to propose three new rules in the spring of 2026 “to modernize Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for vehicles with automated driving systems.” These include relaxing mandates for vehicles without manual controls and that don’t use gear shift sticks, defrosting buttons, or certain lighting equipment.
This should not only help Qualcomm’s diversification efforts in the automotive market but also other self-driving car initiatives such as Google’s GOOGL Waymo and Amazon’s AMZN Zoox.
At the time of publication, TheStreet Pro Portfolio was long QCOM, MRVL, PLTR, GOOGL and AMZN.
