Samsung Enters Auto Industry To Make Electronics For Autonomous Cars

Lucas123 writes: Samsung has become the latest electronics company to create a division specifically for manufacturing parts for the automotive industry. South Korea's largest smartphone maker said it will begin manufacturing electronics with a specific focus on autonomous vehicles and infotainment systems. In October, General Motors announced a strategic partnership with South Korea's LG Electronics for it to produce a majority of the key components for GM's upcoming electric vehicle (EV), the Chevrolet Bolt. Having formerly balked at the automotive electronics market as too small, consumer computer chipmakers are now entering the space with fervor.

Dutch semiconductor maker NXP is closing an $11.8 billion deal to buy Austin-based Freescale, which makes automotive microprocessors. The combined companies would displace Japan's Renesas as the world's largest vehicle chipmaker. German semiconductor maker Infineon Technology has reportedly begun talks to buy a stake in Renesas. Thilo Koslowski, a vice president at Gartner, said the industry is entering the age of "software-defined vehicles." There are easily 80 to 100 processors in a vehicle depending on their sophistication," Koslowski said. "Automotive software and hardware capabilities will become one of most sophisticated device platforms out there."

competition is awesome

[slazzy]

Look forward to seeing what they come up with.

Re:

[Big Hairy Ian]

I anticipate a ford Galaxy with a beveled windscreen

Dupe

[bigdavex]

http://tech.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]

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[Sique]

On the other hand, the 35 year old Ford probably sucks at any crash, while the Chevy gives you decent survival rates. Most of the increased weight and thus the increased energy consumption for anything else than cruising along a straight highway is mostly caused by the enforced body structure to withstand diverse impact scenarios, and another cause is the increased glas surface compared to a car from the late 1970ies/early 1980ies. The electronics got introduced when emission standards forced the introducti

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[Sique]

I didn't miss the passage. But if you want to go back to the '80ies fatalities rates, be my guest. And bad building quality is not an inherent electronics problem.

Number of computer

[bobstreo]

I want in my car?

0, not including the media device.

I hate having a car computer, always watching, always judging, always waiting to be used as evidence against me in a court of law.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Trust me, you don't want a car with a carburether or drum brakes with no anti skid control. There are quite a few good reasons why the old VW Beetle is obsolete.

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[thegarbz]

Number of computers you have in your car? Like 20. I'm willing to bet you owe your life to several of them already.
Once they become completely autonomous people won't be coming after you in a court of law at all. Unless that is you knowingly did the incredibly dangerous task of attempting to drive a car yourself.

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[drinkypoo]

Number of computers you have in your car? Like 20. I'm willing to bet you owe your life to several of them already.

I have two German luxo-barges. The old one has about two computers in it (not counting the aftermarket stereo) and can continue to operate even if you remove the electrical system completely from the car, until you shut it off; the key is backed by a vacuum switch which controls the motor run function. In theory you can then go on to pull-start it (no bump starting, it has 22:1 compression and an automatic) and drive it some more. The new one is a rolling fleet of computers and all of them are stupid. The s

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[thegarbz]

The old car doesn't have traction control, it doesn't have ABS, it doesn't have EBD. What it has is reliability. Even when things are leaking or flopping around, it will keep going down the road.

If things are leaking or flopping I would prefer my car not to keep going down the road. You say there's clear benefits to either approach but really no one should be praising reliability over ABS. Or take it the next level, you don't drive with seatbelts because you're afraid the seatbelt tensioner will break down and the check engine light comes on. Most cars even if the ECU fails completely will give you a limp mode so you can drive to the local garage at 30mph.

Driving is the most dangerous activity most

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[drinkypoo]

If things are leaking or flopping I would prefer my car not to keep going down the road.

Oh, so if you get into a collision, you would like it to explode immediately, spreading you across several counties? I, personally, would like something which still continues to function so that I can at least get it off of the road. Or if I'm 300 miles from anywhere, I want to be able to limp to a service station.

Most cars even if the ECU fails completely will give you a limp mode

Well no, your ignorance is staggering. If the ECU fails completely, the car is dead. It's not doing a goddamned thing. It won't even fire the spark. That's the obvious advantage of cars that don't

Whoops forgot one

[drinkypoo]

Also the Dodge pickups with the Cummins, maybe allll the way up to 1998? I want to say it's the 1994-1998 trucks that have the good injection pump. But maybe it was 1990-1994.

Prediction

[Anonymous Coward]

It will be indistinguishable from the Apple car.

They already make cars!

[iONiUM]

This story is misleading, Samsung has been making cars for years for Korea only. Anybody who's been to Korea has seen them they're everywhere. They aren't entering the market.

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[Anonymous Coward]

That's Renault Samsung Motors, a company owned mostly (80%) by Renault.

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[slew]

That's Renault Samsung Motors, a company owned mostly (80%) by Renault.

And Renault Samsung Motors is what is left over from Samsung Motor (SMI) after SMI went belly up and the remnants were sold to Renault in 2000 and the 20% Samsung share of RSM is actually held by their credit card holding company.

Initially, SMI built cars based on a Nissan platform and sold into Korea, but now they build on a Renault platform and sell only as RSM in korea (outside korea the same cars are badged as Renault). As part of financial agreements, RSM is currently allowed to use the Samsung name i

Eh, dupe.

[blind biker]

http://tech.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]

Samsung enters auto industry?

[papamicd]

Samsung has been making cars since the 90s!

No way in bloody h*ll!!!

[p51d007]

Our company sells, repairs office machines. One of our vendors is Samsung. Their hardware is pretty good, but their SOFTWARE SUCKS. Even into their 4th generation of machines, it still has glitches, issues etc. Oh, I can see it now...your car hits a tree, call Samsung...oh, that is fixed with a new software update, just update your software. The brakes just locked up....no problem, reboot your car.