Samsung turns your car into a Wi-Fi network with Connect Auto

Samsung will enter the connected car market with a little black box you plug in below your steering wheel.

Samsung Connect Auto

Samsung will enter the connected car market with its own software solution housed in a ittle black box you plug in below your steering wheel

In a statement preceding the announcement of its latest Galaxy S7 smartphone in Barcelona, Samsung says it will introduce an ecosystem of services and products into the car “to enable a safer, more eco-friendly and more fun driving experience”.

Offering in-car connectivity and car diagnostic solutions is of growing interest to smartphone manufacturers who see the car and the connected home as new frontiers for services, and for selling the products of their partners. With the car, that will extend further to fleet management and services.

The new Connect Auto system is being launched ahead of this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and will turn a car into something like a home wireless network using a dedicated on-board LTE data connection.

Through that Connect Auto will include an LTE Wi-Fi hotspot with multi-user internet access so that passengers in the car stream content and play online games.

A virtual mechanic will intelligently check a car’s status from an on-board diagnostic port to recommend maintenance and repair services, Samsung says in its statement.

Samsung says the small Connect Auto black box will plug directly into the OBD II port underneath the steering wheel. It would use real-time alerts to help users improve their driving behaviour, monitor fuel efficiency.

Knox, Samsung’s secure solution for enterprise and bring-your-own devices, would be introduced as a security measure to counter concern about a connected car entertainment system being susceptible to hacking.

The new software is being developed using Samsung’s in-house Tizen operating system. The use of Tizen is another example of where the software giant is departing from invoking Google’s standard Android software. Last year Samsung released its Gear S2 smartwatch which too uses Tizen rather than the standard Google Android Wear.

Samsung says Connect Auto will be available in the second quarter of 2016 in the US. Australian availability is unknown at this stage.

“Samsung is creating a new partner ecosystem of carriers, insurance companies, roadside assistance operators and maintenance networks,” the company said in its statement.

Samsung also is implementing its Samsung Pay mobile payments systems, and this is due to be implemented in Australia this year. While not explicitly addressed today, it’s not hard to see the Korean giant introducing it as a way to buy goods and services in the car through Connect Auto.

Samsung says Samsung Pay has 5 million users with transactions worth $US500 million processed in its first six months. Visa and MasterCard are two of its partners.