By Lee Min-hyung
LG Electronics has developed a series of core safety technologies for driverless vehicles, raising expectations the company will sign more partnerships with global automakers in the promising connected car industry.
The Seoul-based tech giant said Sunday it had succeeded in developing and demonstrating two long-term-evolution (LTE) network-powered vehicle-to-everything (V2X) safety technologies.
In particular, the company has produced technology that sends notifications to the car behind when the driver in front suddenly brakes.
By taking advantage of the technology, the driver in the rear vehicle can receive two-track warning signals in the case of an emergency, according to LG. When the vehicle in front suddenly stops, a warning sounds in the vehicle behind. If the driver does not brake following the warning, the system then sends a warning sign, the company said.
“Safety-related technologies are most important for autonomous vehicles,” a company official said.
“We developed the technology, overcoming setbacks from the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) and sensor-based safety systems which can monitor vehicles or obstacles only in close by,” he said.
“The network-powered V2X system, however, can share multiple information from vehicle to vehicle in real-time, including vehicle location, speed and even road conditions.”
The company also developed another safety system powered by its vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology. This can send drivers information on construction sites on the road, reducing potential threats from changing lanes by encountering such unexpected road conditions.
By equipping vehicles with the technology and IT infrastructure on the road, drivers are notified before reaching construction sites on the road, the company said.
LG said it has finished demonstrating the technologies on roads in Gwacheon, Gyeoggi Province, and a driving test track in Hwasung, Gyeonggi Province.
The company expects the latest achievement to broaden its global presence as an auto-parts manufacturer and autonomous vehicle technology developer.
To enhance its research in the emerging industry, the company joined hands with Qualcomm in October to jointly develop connected vehicle systems, seeking to preoccupy the autonomous vehicle market combined with the upcoming fifth-generation network.
Yoon Yong-cheol, a senior vice president at LG Electronics’ auto-parts technology center, said: “We are going to develop more and more next-generation connected vehicle systems in the future, as part of our bid to become a reliable partner for major automakers here and abroad.”