In the first, it’s established a $300million fund focused on connected cars and autonomous technologies. In addition to the fund, Harman, which was acquired by Samsung earlier this year, has established an Autonomous/ADAS strategic business unit.
The second announcement sees Samsung working with TTTech to build products to support new NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme) requirements, as well as solutions for in-vehicle infotainment systems and scalable architectures to support fully autonomous vehicles. Associated with this move is a $75m investment from Samsung’s automotive fund.
What does this tell us? Perhaps the most obvious thing is that autonomous car technology isn’t easy to develop; even for a company with the talents of Samsung. It’s a spider’s web of technologies, bringing together such aspects as connectivity, sensors, computing muscle and artificial intelligence.
While the basic technology is pretty much developed, there’s a long way before Level 5 cars – capable of complete autonomy – will be seen on the roads. But it looks like Samsung, for one, is keen to make that as soon as it can.
