Intel announced this week a $100 million fund to invest in future technology for the car, which it calls the “ultimate mobile device.”
By 2014, the car will be among the 3 fastest growing areas for connecting to the Internet, which makes it a key target area for Intel.
Specifically, Intel Capital, the investment arm of the chip maker, has created the Intel Capital Connected Car Fund that will be distributed over the next 4 to 5 years.
The company hopes to speed up advancement in the car, including vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication. Next gen driver safety devices, speech recognition, gesture recognition and eye tracking technologies for use in the car will also be areas of investment.
“Ultimately, the connected car will have the intelligence and context awareness to offer the right information, at the right time and in the right way to keep drivers and passengers informed, entertained and productive while maintaining optimal safety. Once the car becomes connected, it can also communicate with the cloud, the transportation infrastructure and even other vehicles to provide additional services such as advanced driver assistance and real-time traffic information to optimize the flow of traffic,” said an Intel statement.
In addition to the new fund, Intel announced it is expanding Intel Labs research into the automotive space and it is opening a new auto research and development facility in Germany.
Source: Intel
