Apple recently obtained a permit issued by the Californian authorities which granted the tech giant permission to test autonomous vehicles.
Samsung hasn’t been very public about its auto ambitions until it announced last year that it was buying Harman International for $8 billion. At the time, Samsung said the deal would give the company “a significant presence in the large and rapidly growing market for connected technologies, particularly automotive electronics, which has been a strategic priority.”
In March, the government revised regulations to allow the operation of autonomous vehicles without a steering wheel and pedals, while reducing the number of passengers required to be on board from two to one.
“Autonomous vehicles are a complex of advanced technologies such as automobiles, artificial intelligence, and information and communications. They require cooperation in various fields,” a statement from the Ministry said, according to Google Translate.
Samsung has been diversifying its business away from its reliance on smartphones, focusing on electronics components such as memory for mobile devices and processors. The driverless car push is another sign of its ambition to find new avenues for growth.
