By Lee Min-hyung
U-blox, the Switzerland-based global positioning system (GPS) chip maker, said cars with a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology will be launched in 2017.
“The first car will be launched in the United States in 2017 with this technology on board,” Herbert Blaser, vice president of the company’s short range products division, said during a press conference at the Novotel Ambassador Hotel in southern Seoul, Wednesday.
The V2X technology is vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) or vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) which are expected to become the next standard for vehicles connected with the Internet of Things (IoT), as it can help drivers tell when there is an accident or when traffic lights change.
“Each car knows how fast other cars are going,” he said. “We use cellular technologies to connect the car to the Internet,” said Herbert Blazer. He said the company’s short-range technology will be more widely adopted to download and update software in the car.
The company believes 75 percent of crashes can be prevented by exchanging location, speed and direction by using the V2X technology.
“We expect 152 million connected cars by 2020,” he said.
The company representative dispelled worries over possible hackings by saying, “The industry is working with more security algorithm. Data that is created have to be encrypted by applications.”
The company is partnering with global automakers including Volkswagen, Volvo, Audi and Jaguar.
Shone Kim, the company’s Korean branch chief, said, “We are in talks to expand our partnership with Korean automakers, including Hyundai Motors.”
He said the GPS module maker has already formed a strategic alliance with LG Electronics over vehicle engineering.
“We are cooperating with the company’s vehicle components (VC) division to extend our presence here.”
The industrial chips and module maker was founded in 1997, delivering technologies ranging from cellular communications, short range radio to satellite based positing. It holds 10 branches in Asia-Pacific region including Korea, China and Japan.
“We started the V2X business in 2009 and have expanded partnership with global automakers for the past three years."