Samsung Electronics wants to become a major player in autonomous driving, building on its recent $8 billion acquisition of audio and auto parts supplier Harman and its prominence in mobile communications markets.
Samsung will form a separate business unit within Harman to house self-driving products and is plowing $300 million into a new fund investing in startups in the technology, the company said in a statement.
The autonomous driving unit will compete on everything from driving algorithms to systems integration, Dinesh Paliwal, Harman’s CEO, said.
That will include an advanced-driver assistance platform with open software that allows outside engineers to build products from it — a shot at Mobileye, which was acquired by Intel this year in a move that mirrored Samsung’s automotive leap.
“Our industry is literally screaming, saying, ‘We love Mobileye but we need an open platform,'” Paliwal said. “Competition is the best thing ever. The auto industry wants us to do it and we think we have the capacity and the fuel power.”
Samsung, which bought U.S.-based Harman last year to increase its presence in automotive tech, is betting big it can marry its consumer electronics with Harman’s presence in dashboards in vehicles.
