LG Electronics has teamed up with automotive semiconductor firm NXP and German advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) developer HELLA Aglaia to create solutions for self-driving vehicles. The goal of the alliance is to create products that incorporate advanced driver assistance systems to help car manufacturers wishing to build self-driving vehicles meet the global standard for safe autonomous driving, although those regulations are not expected to take effect immediately as regulators are currently still drafting the rules.
As part of the partnership, the three companies will jointly develop commercial solutions integrated with other components to help autonomous vehicles navigate public roads safely. For its part, LG will be contributing to the initiative with its ADAS camera and image recognition system and control algorithm. Meanwhile, NXP will throw its car image processor into the mix while HELLA Aglaia will contribute its ADAS software to the project. These ADAS solutions are expected to be commercially available by 2020 as automakers are presently testing their autonomous vehicle prototypes and as regulatory standards have yet to be completed. On top of this new partnership, LG recently forged an agreement with mapping company HERE late last year with the goal of developing a business-to-business platform for communication hubs intended to be embedded in autonomous vehicles. As part of that alliance, LG Electronics will contribute its telematics technologies into the initiative while HERE will provide its Open Location Platform. Last October, LG Electronics and chipmaker Qualcomm also teamed up to create connectivity solutions for connected cars, with a primary focus on 5G and Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) technologies.
In July last year, a committee within the United States House of Representatives voted unanimously to pass a bill that would accelerate the deployment of self-driving cars. More interestingly, the bill also sought to prevent States from blocking public road testing for autonomous vehicles in their respective jurisdictions. LG Electronics, along with Samsung, is also likely to benefit from the self-driving guidelines issued by the United States Department of Transportation last September, with Samsung-owned Harman International Industries supplying various infotainment systems and general electronics to automakers in the United States while seeking to boost its industry alliances in the future.