Daewoo is a company that has seen better days, and it has gone through a lot in these past decades. Although once a formidable name in the automobile industry, the company ran into lots of financial troubles and sold off most of the assets in 2001. After selling its automobile arm to General Motors in 2001, it was replaced by GM Korea in 2011.
There are rumors that Samsung may have bought what is now left of Daewoo’s automobile arm. Although this story is still unconfirmed, it could be true as we got this information directly from an insider and a reliable source.
Samsung has been reported to be working on its self-driving car project and even acquired the permit to test self-driving cars in California in August. At the moment, Samsung already has revealed Hyundai cars modified with test hardware built by Samsung. The test hardware includes sensors and AI-powered computer modules.
Samsung may be looking to compete with Apple and Waymo (Google), its potential rivals in the race to build commercial self-driving cars.
Right now, Samsung has already acquired the licence to test self-driving cars in its South Korean home country as well. Acquiring Daewoo’s automobile arm might make us speculate that the company doesn’t just want to partner with Hyundai and other established brands, but to actually produce its own self-driving cars from the ground-up.
Again, it should be noted that this is an unconfirmed report based on the information received from a source. It’s no longer news Samsung is working on self-driving cars. Early in September, Samsung launched a $300M autonomous driving fund to back startups building technology towards self-driving cars.