South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc. has teamed up with Qualcomm Inc., a United States-based semiconductor and telecommunications equipment company, to develop next-generation connected and autonomous car technologies in a bid to lead the growing self-driving vehicle parts industry.

LG Electronics said on Thursday that it signed an agreement with Qualcomm at LG Science Park in Magok, western Seoul, on the joint development of connected and self-driving car solutions in the presence of Ahn Seung-kwon, president and chief technology officer, Kim Jin-yong, executive vice president of LG’s vehicle components smart business unit, and Nakul Duggal, vice president of product management at Qualcomm.

The two companies hope they can develop leading, next-generation connected car solutions by combining LG Electronics’ prowess in developing vehicle-use telecommunications solutions and connected car components with Qualcomm’s latest vehicle-use communications chips technology.

The two companies aim to develop the network technology for automobiles that is expected to be four to five times faster in terms of high-speed wireless data communication compared to the current long-term evolution network technology and help significantly reduce communication delay to one tenth, according to the Korean company. The new solution is expected to play a vital role in a next-generation connected car platform.

Under the agreement, LG Electronics and Qualcomm have set up a joint research center inside LG Electronics’ research and development campus in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul. The joint center will mainly develop next-generation connected car solutions and future technology including mobile network-based vehicle to everything (V2X) technology. The two companies plan to add another research center on a 1,320 square meter land site in Magok, western Seoul, by the end of next year.

Mobile network-based V2X technology is aimed at establishing a safer traffic environment by connecting vehicles and others via mobile network technology. It is considered a core technology in a self-driving car.

V2X technology boosts connectivity among vehicles, infrastructure, and pedestrians. For example, it prevents car crashes by sensing nearing vehicles and giving a driver danger warnings by exchanging real-time traffic conditions between the vehicle and base network station. The technology also provides intelligent traffic information by allowing the vehicle to sense pedestrians’ smartphones and alert the driver.

By Lee Dong-in and Lee Eun-joo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]