Samsung-owned race track being modified to test its autonomous cars

Last month Samsung Group announced that it’s looking to discover new avenues for growth and that it’s setting up a dedicated team that’s going to be tasked with growing its automotive-related business and focusing particularly on autonomous or self-driving technologies which are likely going to be a big part of the future. It was also reported recently that Samsung and BMW are working together to create the virtual brains that will power autonomous cars of the future, all this is enough to realize that the company wants to be a player in this arena, and what it’s doing now only goes to show that Samsung is serious about self-driving cars.

Samsung C&T owns Everland, an amusement park in Yongin, Gyeonggi, South Korea. The Speedway motor race track at Everland is being modified so that it can be used as a testing ground for Samsung’s autonomous vehicles. Speedway was the first paved race track in South Korea and it was opened in 1995, it was often visited by Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee who liked going around in sports cars. Actual road conditions and simulated urban environments will be added to the Speedway so that the company is able to test this technology effectively. “Samsung already owns Speedway, so we just need to add some features to the existing racecourse,” says a Samsung representative, adding that this is much easier than actually finding the space to built an entirely new track for the purpose of testing self-driving cars.

Via