Samsung Given Approval To Test Self-Driving Cars In California
September 9th, 2017 by James Ayre
Samsung has been given approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to begin testing self-driving vehicle tech on public roads in the state, according to recent reports.
The decision means that the already crowded autonomous vehicle development sector in California is now even more crowded. It’s already home to Waymo/Google, GM, Apple, Tesla, Bosch, Baidu, BMW, Lyft, Daimler, Nissan, NVIDIA, Delphi, and numerous others.
This news follows our earlier article revealing that Samsung had been granted approval to begin testing its self-driving vehicle tech on public roads in its home market of South Korea.
The Verge provides more on that: “In May, Samsung received approval to test cars in its home country of South Korea, using software adapted to Hyundai vehicles. That sounds odd because Samsung owns nearly 20 percent of Renault Samsung Motors, which is part of the Renault-Nissan alliance that’s the world’s fourth-largest auto producer. Nissan also has approval to test self-driving cars in California. But in 2015, Samsung announced a new division that would focus on self-driving vehicle software, rather than the creation of the entire vehicle.”
It’s an interesting situation. Pretty much every company out there with any connection at all to the auto industry seems to be taking aim at self-driving vehicle tech. You have to wonder at this point, though, how many of these companies will end up possessing market share (of any kind) a decade or two from now. One of them? A couple of them? All of them?
Also worth remembering: Samsung (Samsung SDI) is one of the world’s leading battery producers, providing batteries for BMW’s electric cars, some of Daimler’s, Porsche’s, and the Fiat 500e.
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About the Author
James Ayre 's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy. You can follow his work on Google+.
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