Quantum Computing Empowers Autonomous Driving, QCI Solves Optimization Problems for 3800- Variables in 6 Minutes

On July 20, Quantum Computing Inc. (QCI), a quantum computing full-stack company, announced a superior and viable solution to an optimization problem for BMW with more than 3,854 variables in six minutes.

QCI achieved this milestone by applying a new quantum hardware technology called Entropy Quantum Computing (EQC) to the "BMW Vehicle Sensor Configuration Optimization Challenge" - a complex problem consisting of 3854 variables and over 500 constraints. --a complex problem consisting of 3,854 variables and more than 500 constraints. In comparison, today's Noise-In-Scale Quantum (NISQ) computers can handle about 127 variables when solving problems of similar complexity.

In 2021, the "BMW Group and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Quantum Computing Challenge" included a vehicle sensor configuration optimization use case in which participants were asked to find the best configuration of sensors for a given vehicle to provide maximum coverage (i.e., detection of obstacles in different driving scenarios) at the lowest cost, which could be used in autonomous vehicles. QCI was ultimately selected as a finalist in 2021.

In 2022, through the acquisition of QPhoton, an optical quantum systems company, QCI gained access to a powerful set of new quantum hardware technologies, including EQC. as a result, QCI today presented its 2022 solution to BMW: a superior sensor configuration of 15 sensors, achieving 96% coverage using QCI's quantum hardware, software system.

EQC operates more than 70 times faster than QCI's 2021 hybrid D-Wave implementation. While the speed itself has been a major breakthrough, this system also offers extreme stability, allowing the company to run problems iteratively, proving that it can be effectively applied to real business processes.

"We are very proud to have achieved what we believe to be an important milestone in quantum evolution," said Bob Liscouski, CEO of QCI, "and we believe that this proves that innovative quantum computing technology can solve real business problems today. Even more important is the ability to solve complex problems. This demonstrates that quantum solutions are someday feasible: this is a very real and important problem with solutions that may help accelerate the realization of today's self-driving car industry."

Historically, commercial QPU (quantum processor) architectures have only been able to handle problems with minimal variable sizes because of the limited number of quantum bits available to represent the problem variables. These systems also sometimes suffer from severe processing errors as well as stability and calibration issues, further limiting their commercial viability in today's market. In contrast, QCI's EQC can handle computations with consistency over a multivariate space, thus providing a powerful quantum solution to real-world problems.

EQC is based on the most fundamental principles of quantum physics - in particular, the "measurement assumption" that the wave function of a quantum system collapses to an eigenstate due to its interaction with a measurement device or, more generally, with its surroundings. However, while existing quantum computing architectures must operate on closed quantum systems in extreme cases to mitigate environmental effects, EQC operating on open quantum systems and coupling quantum systems into engineering environments can provide ideal solutions to the corresponding problems.

Reference links：

https://www.quantumcomputinginc.com/press-releases/qci-bmw/