It combines the cellular modem and direct short-range radio together in one.
By Jonathan M. Gitlin
A few weeks ago, I wondered whether connected cars might end up using LTE modems for Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications rather than the 5.9GHz Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) protocol. Although the DSRC bandwidth was allocated in 1999 and the 802.11p spec was outlined in 2002, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been very slow to act, and here in 2017 we're still waiting for automakers to actually add it to any of their vehicles.
By contrast, 4G LTE is becoming pervasive across new car lineups with no reason to believe it will be any different when 5G LTE arrives. But today, Qualcomm revealed a new chipset for OEMs that will let us have our connected car cakes and eat them too.