Samsung will provide automotive navigation and entertainment systems for Hyundai vehicles as both South Korean manufacturers announced a new venture to bring more technology into Hyundai’s cars. The first product of this collaboration includes a smart keys utility that allows drivers to remotely switch on and turn off their vehicles. Another solution, called “around view”, gives drivers a different viewing angle of the road ahead, thereby assisting them in gauging incoming obstacles better.
Samsung Electronics, which is the largest chip vendor in the world, is looking to venture into the automotive chip business. While Samsung’s automotive chip technology isn’t advanced enough to make logic chips for cars yet, it will be the focus for the hardware manufacturer going forward. A senior Samsung researcher said that, “The automotive chip solution business is a blue ocean. As automotive chips, which will mostly be logic chips for controlling entire computing systems, require high-quality safety conditions, we can’t push the business in a short time. But, with the help of Hyundai Motors, Samsung will cut its reliance on conventional memory chips.”
As cars start to get more tech-friendly, the need for building reliable storage solutions for automobiles will be high, and according to Samsung, this will be a lucrative market. By collaborating with Hyundai, Samsung has the potential to diversify into the automotive chip business. “Basically, supplying logic chips to major car companies is Samsung’s long-term goal. But storage devices for cars are getting better, meaning that Samsung has more opportunities to sell embedded multi-media cards (eMMCs) and embedded multi-chip packages (eMCPs) to Hyundai vehicles based on the solid corporate partnership. Without the help of Hyundai, Samsung’s automotive chip business won’t grow.”
Earlier in the year, Google announced the Open Automotive Alliance to bring Android to cars. While that is a more software focused effort, Samsung’s collaboration sees the manufacturer working on the hardware side of things.
