It seems now it’s about teaming up for autonomous cars, I guess it’s all about “Car Wars.” We’ve had automotive companies like; BMW teaming up with Intel & Mobileye, Ford teaming up with Google and Uber, Toyota teamed up with Microsoft, and then here comes Volkswagen and LG have chosen each other.
The new squad announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), earlier this week to collaborate on R&D related to a connected car platform to be developed over the coming years today.
So why the team-up? LG and Volkswagen have listed their three goals they want to achieve from this partnership:
- Developing technologies that bring together the connected car and the smart home so that drivers are able to control and monitor smart devices in their homes such as lights, security systems and domestic appliances from out on the road.
- Developing a context-sensitive notification center that can deliver messages in an intuitive and safe manner and provide optimized recommendations to the driver in real time.
- Developing next-generation infotainment technology for connected cars.
Richard Choi said in a statement, that the two companies are teaming up to develop the next generation of connected car platform that allows wide integration with smart home services and adoption of open IoT connectivity technologies.
“We think LG’s expertise in smart technology together with Volkswagen’s leadership in the automotive sector will revolutionize the way drivers interact with their vehicles,” he adds.
In March in 2015, Volkswagen subsidiary Italdesign Guigiaro unveiled its GEA concept car at the Geneva Motor Show with seven key components supplied by LG Electronics, including the holographic display, connected smart watch, tail lights and rear camera.
In July, LG was selected as Volkswagen’s strategic electronics supplier and also listed as a partner company on its FAST (Future Automotive Supply Tracks) programme.[related-posts]
At CES earlier this year, the two companies attracted great attention showcasing a smart home system that could be controlled remotely from the vehicle.