LG Electronics has announced a new partnership with prominent chipset manufacturer Qualcomm to create connectivity solutions for connected cars. With regard to which technologies the two plan collaborate on, LG says the primary focal points will include 5G and Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) technologies. Beyond that, the announcement itself didn’t go into too much detail about the specifics of what that entails. However, it was revealed that the companies will be working together out of a joint research center to be located in LG’s Science Park in Seoul and that the partnership became effective immediately following the announcement.
The purpose of the partnership, in the meantime, is to generate technologies that will be able to keep up with the high-demand, high-intensity data streams required by autonomous and connected vehicles. 5G, in particular, plays a vital role in that, according to LG. The company says it is the only connectivity solution that will be able to deliver the amount of data self-driving cars need with a low enough latency to be useful. That’s down to the fact that 5G is as much as 5 times faster than current LTE technologies, with up to ten times less latency. Moreover, the technology, which is expected to work alongside LTE, will really be needed to service the huge strain placed on networks by the addition of those vehicles. Meanwhile, C-V2X technologies will be required so that those vehicles’ systems can talk to other cars, smartphones, and other technologies. It was introduced with the Release 14 of the 3GPP and is expected to be rolled out by 2020 in Europe, but the two technological advances will need to be brought together to really make a difference.
With regard to what LG and Qualcomm bring to the table, both companies obviously already have a substantial amount of experience in terms of 5G and telecommunications. So this isn’t necessarily a new arena for either. Qualcomm, in particular, has already filled the role as the world leader in smartphone chipsets and associated radios over the past several years. It also recently revealed its first dedicated C-V2X chip, back in September. The two tech giants hope that by working together, the process of researching and creating viable solutions for use in the self-driving automobiles of the near future can be accelerated.