Qualcomm Technologies Inc. has revealed a new chipset and reference design that moves the mobile chip giant into self-driving cars.

The chipset, called the 9150 C-V2X (short for Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything), facilitates vehicle-to-vehicle communications. Along with Qualcomm‘s C-V2X Reference Design, it uses two different methods to exchange messages between vehicles and infrastructure

The direct mode allows a vehicle to communicate with other vehicles in its near vicinity to improve its situational awareness by the exchange of information using low latency transmissions in the 5.9 GHz ITS band. The cellular mode, designed to support existing 4G technology along with future 5G standards, is focused on support data such as telematics, connected infotainment and what the company describes as a “growing number of advanced informational safety use cases.”

“With its strong synergy with telematics and an evolution towards 5G, C-V2X offers benefits to the automotive industry by developing new capabilities for improving road safety, and enhancing autonomous driving and advanced connected services, while building on [our] ITS momentum and investments made over the last decade,” Nakul Duggal, vice president of product management, Qualcomm, said in a statement. “C-V2X is expected to support safer roads, increase productivity and decrease traffic congestion.”

Qualcomm is not particularly well-known for providing technology for autonomous vehicles. But as a company famed for the design of its communications chips used in smartphones worldwide, it’s no big surprise that the company would release a chip that essentially allows cars to talk to other cars, both directly and indirectly via a mobile network.

The company did launch a $38 billion bid acquire rival chipmaking firm NXP Semiconductors N.V., a rival chipmaker that has a dedicated self-driving car technology division. But the takeover bid remains in limbo because of demands from a recalcitrant activist investor as well as an ongoing European Union investigation into whether the deal is anticompetitive. A decision in that case isn’t expected to be handed down until Dec. 9.

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