Samsung has gradually been making its way into the self-driving car arena. The company modified a race track that it owns in South Korea last year to test autonomous cars. It received approval from South Korea's Land Ministry four months ago to test self-driving cars on public roads.
The company has now secured a similar permit in California. Samsung has confirmed that it has received a permit to test self-driving cars in the state of California.
Samsung has not confirmed precisely what it will be testing in California now that it has received this permit. In a statement sent to Reuters, Samsung said that it has secured this permit “n pursuit of a smarter, safer transportation future.”
The company has previously said that it has no plans to enter the car manufacturing business. So while it's likely that we might not see Samsung-branded cars, it may develop its own self-driving car technology that it will then license to conventional car manufacturers.
Samsung certainly won't be the only company doing something like this. There are countless companies working on similar projects and the list includes Apple as well. Waymo, a division of Google's parent company Alphabet, is also working on something along the same lines.
