California regulators voted in favor of robotaxi operators expanding their paid driverless services in the city of San Francisco, a major milestone toward commercializing the technology.

Samsung Electronics will start offering China-based SemiDrive automotive memory chips. As China has partly banned US-based Micron's products sold in China, whether South Korean-based companies will gain more opportunities accordingly has attracted the industry's attention.

As wireless technology evolves and grows ever more seamlessly into the fabric of our daily lives, there remain significant problems to solve. Discrepancies in connection speed, known as latency, may only seem like a nuisance when on a video call, but can have major ramifications for emerging applications. Industrial IoT solutions require a near-instant and uninterrupted flow of data for optimal efficiency; autonomous vehicles will need to communicate with each other with minimal delay in order to guarantee safe operation; telemedical surgery absolutely calls for low-latency communication as human life hangs in the balance. LatenceTech, a Canada-based startup, aims to serve this growing market through novel analytics software.

Automotive tier-1 supplier ZF enjoyed steady growth in the first half of 2023. The company said it is on track to reach its annual sales target of EUR45 billion (US$49.5 billion). In addition, it just opened an R&D center and started to build another automotive electronics factory in China, aiming to gain its market share in the country.

Recently, there were rumors that Wu Xinzhou, head of Autonomous Driving Center at XPeng Motors, would be leaving the company and joining Nvidia in the United States. This news caused a sensation in both the Chinese autonomous driving industry and the semiconductor industry. Subsequently, XPeng chairman, He Xiaopeng, and Wu Xinzhou himself confirmed the news.

Generative AI is expected to gain more exposure in future cars. Tesla and some China-based car companies are trying to integrate AI into their technologies. While commercialization is yet to come, Chinese automotive suppliers have started making efforts to create a stable supply of high-performance computing chips.

The development of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), self-driving cars and smart cockpits is closely related to AI. Although the chip war between China and the US has not stopped the technologies from progressing, automakers and governments already realize that they need to act proactively to secure specific chips for future development.

Tesla has started allowing transfers of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology in China within a limited time to encourage customers to buy a new car. However, many FSD features have not been activated in the country. Tesla is not the only case. Most foreign carmakers have hit roadblocks when developing their AI expertise in China.

Leading semiconductor companies like NXP, Nvidia and MediaTek are working on using AI in future smart cockpits. Universal Scientific Industrial (USI), which is experienced in system-in-package (SiP) technology, recently said it is collaborating with automotive SoC solution providers to develop automotive compute SiP/SoM modules. The solution will help car OEMs and tier-1 suppliers accelerate smart cockpit development.

Foxconn has developed multiple partnerships as it scales up its semiconductor and EV businesses. The company recently announced a collaboration with US-based semiconductor company Analog Devices (ADI). The pair signed an MoU about jointly developing a new-generation digital cockpit platform and high-performance battery management system.

Audi hopes to gain EV market share in China as its collaboration with Shanghai-based SAIC Motor grows deeper. SAIC confirmed on July 20 that the pair will further its partnership and speed up the development of Audi EVs in one of the world's largest automotive markets.

Vehicle price reductions continued to affect Tesla's margins in the second quarter of this year while it reached record production and deliveries. At an earnings call on July 19, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company is willing to license its Full Self-Driving to other carmakers.

Samsung Electronics has begun mass production of its new UFS 3.1 memory solution for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems. The new solution offers the lowest energy consumption in the industry, allowing automakers to provide consumers with the finest mobility experience possible, the company claimed.

There is a popular joke in India that Bangalore is a city where techies travel two hours in harrowing traffic to develop apps that will deliver food and groceries in eight minutes. It may sound funny, but it's a fact – Bangalore is only second to London in the list of slowest cities in the world.

Europe's largest carmaker is developing self-driving expertise in the US. Volkswagen Group of America announced that it has started a pilot autonomous vehicle (AV) program in Austin, Texas, aiming to launch the cars in 2026 commercially.