Plans Revealed at IAA Mobility 2023 in Germany
LG Electronics, which has declared itself to be a smart life solutions company as its future vision, has unveiled a strategy to realize its vision in its electronics business following its home appliance business. Centering on a future mobility customer experience theme developed based on customer research, the Korean tech giant said that it will help reinvent cars that allow drivers to rest or enjoy interesting content.
LG Electronics President Cho Ju-wan introduced his company’s views on the mobility industry and its future vision under the theme of “Taking ‘Life’s Good’ on the Road” in a press conference on Sept. 4 (local time) ahead of the opening of IAA Mobility 2023 in Munich, Germany.
Cho redefined the car as a personalized digital space. This is because a recent study on a hypothetical autonomous driving environment concluded that customers perceive autonomous vehicles as their own personal space for work and play. LG Electronics surveyed nearly 31,000 global customers about their perceptions of cars in their daily lives and found that 72 percent of the respondents enjoyed spending their own private time in their cars. In addition, 43 percent considered their cars more than just a means of transportation, but also as a meaningful personal space.
Based on these findings, LG Electronics set up three future mobility customer experience themes: Transformable, Explorable, and Relaxable.
The theme of Transformable envisions a vehicle as a personalized digital cave that can be transformed into a multi-purpose space depending on the driver’s situation and purpose. LG Electronics plans to turn cars into variable spaces by utilizing displays and appliances that can be rollable, flexible, transparent, and more.
The theme of Explorable is based on the concept of suggesting and providing customized content to customers such as video content that is just as long as driving time or useful information about destinations. The idea is to explore the customers’ driving journey by providing appropriate content. LG Electronics plans to utilize extended reality (XR), transparent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, and the webOS platform to provide various kinds of content.
The theme of Relaxation is designed to give customers a break in the car that allows them to relax mentally and physically. For example, LG Electronics creates a peaceful garden with soothing music and heated seat massages with advanced innovative displays. LG named these three themes “Alpha-able,” meaning that everything is possible.
LG’s software-centered approach comes as the mobility industry is evolving toward software-defined vehicles (SDVs). The company is fostering its electronics business around three pillars -- in-vehicle infotainment systems (VS Division), electric vehicle powertrains (LG Magna e-Powertrain), and automotive lighting systems (ZKW). The three are considered core technologies for the future mobility era. It is planning to secure software competitiveness in each pillar.