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"South Korean industrial behemoth Samsung may be on the verge of trying its hand at cars again after a failed attempt to establish itself as an automaker in the mid-1990s. This time, however, it could be a very different story, as Samsung may be attempting to leverage its recent success in the mobile industry and its partnerships with Google and the Renault-Nissan Alliance in order to push self-driving electric vehicles. Samsung has filed a number of recent patents related to motors, tires, and onboard electronics. Combined with its lithium-ion battery business, Samsung is likely trying its hand at becoming a top tier one-automotive supplier for electrified vehicles or perhaps even a manufacturing partner for Google and Renault-Nissan. While Samsung is an enormous conglomerate with divisions in everything from shipbuilding to refrigerators, it is the mobile devices and electronics supply businesses that have been driving its huge profits in recent years. In addition to its success with Android-powered self-branded devices, Samsung has supplied processors, memory, displays and other components for most of the hundreds of millions of Apple iPhones and iPads that have been sold.  A similar model could be on tap for automotive if Google decides it wants a partner to produce self-driving cars. Following the failure of Samsung Motors during the 1997 Korean financial collapse, Renault and Nissan stepped in to take over that business, retaining the Samsung brand for marketing reasons to help appeal to local customers. Google has no doubt witnessed the difficulty that Tesla has had with becoming established over its first decade in business, and it would no doubt prefer to emulate the more successful Android approach to get its autonomous vehicle control software into the marketplace. A three-way partnership would be hugely advantageous for all the partners. As the mobile phone sector reaches saturation and shrinking profit margins, Samsung is surely looking for new ways to grow. As the most aggressive promoter of plug-in vehicles among traditional automakers, Renault and Nissan bring retail and manufacturing capabilities, and they would appreciate new ways to make their EVs a more attractive proposition for consumers. Combining their capabilities into vehicles that could power electric car-sharing systems by using an Uber-like phone service seems it could be the best of all worlds. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/news/a6524/samsung-electric-autonomous-cars/>