Samsung investing $300 million in self-driving car tech

Another heavy-weight is entering the autonomous driving market as Samsung Electronics is forming a new business unit within its Harman subsidiary. The South Korean tech giant has earmarked $300 million to focus on everything from self-driving algorithms to systems integration.

Harman's CEO claims the industry loves Intel's Mobileye but stresses that there's a strong need for an open platform, and that competition is the best thing ever:

“Our industry is literally screaming, saying, ‘We love Mobileye but we need an open platform,”’ [Dinesh] Paliwal [,Harman’s chief executive officer,] said. “Competition is the best thing ever. The auto industry wants us to do it and we think we have the capacity and the fuel power.”

The move is part of a broader, $8 billion initiative to get Samsung technology in the automotive market. Technology is the main focus here, Samsung has no plans to produce cars itself. Full details Bloomberg.