Texas closing in on California as largest market; Qualcomm’s Nakul Duggal
About this episode
Texas is on the verge of overtaking California as the nation's largest auto market, fueled by a massive appetite for high-dollar pickup trucks. Meanwhile, major dealership groups are aggressively adopting AI, leaving smaller competitors to play catch-up. Volkswagen is shaking up its software strategy by ending a costly automated driving partnership with Bosch. Finally, Qualcomm’s Nakul Duggal joins the show to discuss how the company plans to dominate the automotive semiconductor space, highlighting the rise of satellite connectivity and cars that can make financial transactions on their own.
Texas is quietly closing in on California as the country’s largest auto market. America’s publicly traded dealer groups are going all-in on artificial intelligence, and smaller rivals are starting to feel the pressure. Plus, Qualcomm’s Nakul Duggal explains why he believes the company is on track to become the auto industry’s top silicon supplier.
F&I
"Group One Automotive leads the pack with more than 50 active AI projects, according to JPMorgan analyst Rajat Gupta, spanning call centers, FNI technology, and technician productivity."
This is the office at the dealership where you go to sign the final paperwork to buy your car. It is also where the dealer tries to sell you extra add-ons like extended warranties, wheel protection, or anti-theft systems.
F&I stands for Finance and Insurance, a highly profitable department within a car dealership. This department is responsible for securing customer auto loans or leases, finalizing purchase contracts, and selling aftermarket products such as extended warranties, gap insurance, and paint protection.
DMS
"Lithia is switching its entire store network to an AI native dealership management system."
This is the main computer system that a car dealership uses to run everything. It tracks which cars are on the lot, manages customer paperwork, schedules oil changes, and handles the dealership's accounting.
A Dealership Management System (DMS) is a comprehensive software suite that auto retailers use to manage their entire business operations. It integrates inventory management, sales tracking, customer relationship management (CRM), finance, and service department scheduling into a single platform.
Cariad
"The tie-up launched in 2022 through VW's software unit Cariad to develop driver assistance and autonomous driving tech across VW's brands."
This is Volkswagen's internal software company. Think of them as the team responsible for building the 'operating system' (like iOS or Android) for all VW, Audi, and Porsche cars, though they have struggled to get their software working smoothly and on time.
Cariad is Volkswagen Group's automotive software subsidiary, established to build a unified software platform, operating system, and cloud architecture for all VW brands. The unit has faced significant development delays and management shakeups, leading VW to increasingly seek external partnerships for advanced driver assistance and automated driving systems.
DRAM
"If you've been listening to the show lately, you know we've been talking quite a bit about the DRAM chip shortage lately. That's the race between automakers and AI infrastructure companies for memory supply."
DRAM is the temporary memory (RAM) inside a computer. In a modern car, it acts like the short-term memory that helps the dashboard screens, navigation maps, and safety cameras run quickly and smoothly without lagging.
Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM) is a type of semiconductor memory used in computers and modern vehicles for high-speed, temporary data storage. As cars become 'computers on wheels' with advanced infotainment, digital dashboards, and autonomous driving systems, they require massive amounts of DRAM to process data in real time.
Nakul Duggal
"Nicole Dugal is Executive Vice President and Group General Manager for Automotive, Industrial, and Robotics at Qualcomm. He spoke with our own Molly Boygon at Qualcomm's Investor Day in New York..."
A top executive at Qualcomm, a massive tech company famous for making smartphone chips. He is leading their effort to put powerful computer chips and artificial intelligence into modern cars.
Nakul Duggal is the Executive Vice President and Group General Manager of Automotive, Industrial, and Embedded IoT at Qualcomm. He has been instrumental in leading Qualcomm's aggressive expansion into the automotive sector, transforming the chipmaker into a primary supplier of central computing platforms for modern vehicles.
agentic AI
"...and makes the case that agentric AI in vehicles, cars that can think, decide, and transact on your behalf, is already here."
This is artificial intelligence that doesn't just talk to you, but actually does chores for you. For example, instead of you pulling out your phone to pay for a parking garage, your car's built-in AI can spot the payment code, log in, and pay the fee automatically while you drive in.
Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems designed to act as autonomous agents. Unlike passive AI that only answers queries, agentic AI can make decisions, plan multi-step workflows, and execute real-world transactions (such as paying for parking or scheduling vehicle maintenance) on behalf of the user with minimal human intervention.
Snapdragon Digital Chassis
"...and we are now finding that every automaker is adopting the Snapdragon Digital chassis that's become the standard mainstay architecture that most modern vehicles are built on."
This is a complete computer package made by Qualcomm that car companies install in their vehicles. It controls everything from the touchscreen displays and internet connection to the safety sensors and self-driving features.
The Snapdragon Digital Chassis is Qualcomm's comprehensive suite of cloud-connected automotive platforms. It includes hardware and software solutions for telematics, 5G/satellite connectivity, digital cockpits (infotainment and screens), and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), serving as the computing backbone for modern software-defined vehicles.
ADAS
"So I think with any new technology and you're aware of this from ADAS, any new technology that brings in a certain level of automation, it requires transparency..."
This stands for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. It is the group of safety features in modern cars that help you drive, like warning you if you drift out of your lane, keeping a safe distance from the car ahead, or slamming on the brakes to avoid an accident.
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are electronic technologies in vehicles that assist drivers with steering, braking, and parking functions. Using sensors, cameras, and radar, ADAS powers safety features like lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control, and automatic emergency braking, serving as the building blocks for fully autonomous driving.
white box decisions
"Those same rules will apply. And I feel like you're going to have two different types of behaviors. I think one is things that we get used to in our consumer lives with our smartphones, with our PCs. Once that level of trust is built, for those same use cases to transcend over to the car is actually very straightforward because the car is really just another surface area where a consumer is living their life, executing a transaction."
This refers to an AI system where human engineers can easily look inside and see exactly *why* the computer made a specific decision. For self-driving cars, this is incredibly important so we can prove why a car decided to steer, brake, or accelerate in an emergency.
In computer science and AI, a 'white box' system is one where the internal logic, algorithms, and decision-making processes are fully transparent and auditable. This is critical in safety-critical automotive applications like ADAS and autonomous driving, where engineers and regulators must understand exactly why a vehicle chose a specific action, as opposed to opaque 'black box' AI models.
Waymo
"I think if you look at the cases of Vemo and Vemo's are now deployed, the capability is getting better and better. They have a tremendous amount of redundancy."
This is a self-driving car company owned by Google's parent company. They operate driverless taxis that pick up passengers and navigate busy city streets completely on their own without a human driver behind the wheel.
Waymo is an autonomous driving technology development company and a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. (Google's parent company). It operates commercial, fully driverless robotaxi services in major US cities and is widely recognized as the industry leader in Level 4 autonomous vehicle deployment.
Request an Explanation
Heard something you'd like explained? We'll add it to this episode.
Sign in to request explanations for terms you heard.
Want to learn more?
Browse our glossary for plain-English explanations of automotive terms, jargon, and concepts.
Help improve this episode
See something that's not quite right? Our annotations are AI-generated and can sometimes miss the mark. Click the flag icon on any annotation to suggest a correction.