Samsung to Strengthen Presence in automotive Sector with Supply to Tesla

A South Korean publication has reported that Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will be strengthening its presence in the automotive sector with a deal to supply semiconductors to the US electric car manufacturer,  Tesla Motors Inc. Details of the sources of this information were not revealed by the publication, Electronic Times.

Though the financial terms of the deal were not revealed, the report stated that Samsung has been involved in an agreement to contract manufacture chips for self-driving features that will be seen shortly in Tesla models. The contract will cover a period of three years and will involve design, production of prototype and mass-production of the semiconductor chips needed for autonomous driving.

Tesla had earlier been working with Mobileye for supply of

Mobileye’s EyeQ3 chips to power its first generation Autopilot system. This relationship soured after an incident in which a Model S driver had a fatal accident while driving on Autopilot. Tesla will definitely benefit from its new strategic deal with Samsung to engineer, design and produce its own set of self-driving application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips as Samsung has considerable experience in semiconductor technology and is one of the world’s largest chipmakers.

Samsung has been steadily trying to build up relationships with automotive manufacturers and OEMs to further strengthen its presence in this sector and boost sales for some of its products like semiconductors and displays. Last month, it had finalized a USD 8 billion deal to acquire Harman International Industries to expand into the automotive market.