Samsung may start developing chips for smart homes on wheels this year

Samsung announced back in August that it wants nearly all future home appliances to be Wi-Fi and SmartThings-enabled. The company is moving forward with its vision of a connected home and might soon develop new chipsets to help the cause.

Enabling both home appliances and self-driving cars

According to the Korean media citing anonymous people “familiar with the matter,” Samsung will start working on new home appliance chips later this year to put everything a smart home appliance needs on a single chip.

In addition, Samsung reportedly observed a trend whereby companies are beginning to conceptualize electric self-driving vehicles equipped with home appliances and electronics — such as refrigerators and TVs. Samsung reportedly wants to develop chipsets that can power smart homes as well as future EVs that may boast “home on wheels” characteristics.

Despite declining quarterly profit in Q3, Samsung's automotive electronics business — led by Harman International — posted a 51% year-on-year sales increase. The company is now said to push its digital cockpit products more to the forefront.

We may see the company's digital cockpit concepts becoming more like smart homes in the future. And to achieve this vision, Samsung may have to move away and/or upgrade from the existing Exynos Auto V9 platform or at least explore additional solutions. The company might take the first steps to achieve these goals before the end of 2022.