Autonomous Car Parts Market

From left: Kim Jin-yong, head of Smart Business Unit at LG Electronics, Ahn Seung-kwon, CTO of LG and Nakul Duggal, vice president of Automotive Business at Qualcomm pose after agreeing on jointly developing next-generation connected solutions.
From left: Kim Jin-yong, head of Smart Business Unit at LG Electronics, Ahn Seung-kwon, CTO of LG and Nakul Duggal, vice president of Automotive Business at Qualcomm pose after agreeing on jointly developing next-generation connected solutions.

 

LG Electronics and Qualcomm joined forces to preoccupy the autonomous vehicle parts market. LG Electronics’s attempt is interpreted as a strategic move in response to Samsung Electronics which took over Harman.

LG Electronics and Qualcomm held a ceremony to sign an agreement to jointly develop next-generation connected solutions. On the day, the two companies decided to establish a collaborative research center for implementing V2X (communications between vehicles and all objects) and connected car solutions on the Seocho R&D campus of LG Electronics.

The two companies’ decision to establish a collaborative research center came about one month after Samsung Electronics’s establishment of US$-300-million Automotive Innovation Fund on September 14. At that time, Harman created a strategic business unit dedicated to self-driving and the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) in the connected car segment to support Samsung's autonomous driving strategy.

It is highly likely that the Samsung Electronics-Harman Alliance and the LG Electronics-Qualcomm Alliance will take the initiative in leading the Korean auto parts market in the future. It is expected that this rivalry will draw much attention not only from Korean automakers but also from foreign automakers.

At the heart of autonomous vehicle parts or the realization of auto drive technology in the automotive industry is none other than differentiation. Differentiation in the ADAS and 5G communication fields is the auto industry’s task and challenge. It is not an exaggeration to say that Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics just began to compete in the auto parts market to achieve differentiation.

Samsung Electronics unwrapped a 128GB (gigabyte) eUFS (embedded Universal Flash Storage) memory that can implement a next-generation ADAS and infotainment system on November 26. The company explained that it is suitable for high-end automobiles that perform various multimedia functions through the connection of devices such as smartphones. Samsung Electronics is expected to actively develop electric parts for autonomous vehicles based on such memories.

However, Samsung Electronics does not yet have its own know-how in ADAS camera technology for radar sensors, lidar sensors and windshield attachment. To complement this, Samsung Electronics recently received its own license from the government to operate an autonomous vehicle, but its specific performance has yet to be revealed.

Samsung Electronics is expected to strengthen communication with Harman, a global electronic automotive parts supplier acquired by Samsung Electronics last year to make up for this matter. Coupled with Harman’s proprietary ADAS technology, Samsung Electronics is expected to secure more advanced and differentiated memories for fully autonomous vehicles.

LG Electronics succeeded in supplying its own ADAS camera for a new model to a German premium car maker on June 29. The name of the ADAS is "Next-Generation ADAS Front Mono Camera", which can be used for urgent braking when detecting an object ahead and for automatically keeping lanes. Although the ADAS system is usually implemented by the combination of a radar sensor and a camera, LG Electronics’s mono camera is quite meaningful in that the camera can perform various ADAS functions without depending on a radar sensor.

"The camera was loaded with LG’s differentiated camera and image recognition technologies that have accumulated in the fields of smartphones and home appliances," an LG Electronics representative said. "The camera is a high-performance product with more advanced features and stronger safety than before." If the camera's mounting range expands, LG Electronics will be able to expand its presence in the market of autonomous vehicles.

LG Electronics is expected to implement access alert technology to recognize pedestrians' smartphones based on Qualcomm's 5G communication chipset technology. This is an area that no automobile or IT companies have developed yet.

 

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