SEAT, Samsung and SAP connect to developed connected car of the future

SEAT, Samsung Electronics and SAP SE  have created a technological alliance to develop future projects for the connected car. At the 11th edition of Mobile World Congress (MWC), scheduled to begin next Monday in Barcelona, the three companies will showcase cutting-edge concepts developed by pooling their innovation and industry-leading expertise.

Last year SEAT and Samsung concluded an agreement on initial technology solutions that are currently featured in some SEAT models. This year the agreement is strengthened with the arrival of SAP, the world leader in enterprise applications, business networks and the Internet of Things (IoT).

“Samsung’s partnership with SEAT and SAP signals our commitment to developing innovative solutions for the next level of the connected car,” said Dr. Injong Rhee, executive vice-president and head of R&D, Software and Services, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung. “Samsung is focused on bridging the gap between the consumer electronics and automotive industry by bringing the latest cutting-edge mobile technology to the driving experience.”

According to SEAT executive committee president Luca de Meo, “For SEAT, connectivity is a key factor. This technological alliance with Samsung and SAP strengthen SEAT’s aim of becoming a reference in the field of connectivity, and above all, of allying with the best partners to implement new mobility ecosystems business.”

“Delivering a scalable and global Internet of Things solution for the urban parking challenge requires collaboration from market innovators such as SEAT, Samsung and SAP,” said Bernd Leukert, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Products & Innovation. “By leveraging standard integration through SAP Vehicles Network (SVN) and SAP HANA Cloud Platform for the Internet of Things, SEAT has access to a global parking inventory of connected ‘on-street’ and ‘off-street’ parking, whereby user can secure payments via Samsung Pay and enjoy more seamless integration with numerous parking backend systems. Together, we are working to enable a simple urban parking user experience while laying the foundation for additional vehicle centric services.”

The aim of this alliance is to keep users safe and connected while on the road. The R&D teams of SEAT, Samsung and SAP have joined forces to present several future connected car concepts at MWC. These include:

An app that lets you reserve a parking spot and enables you to pay for the service without leaving your car

Following the success of the Samsung Pay platform in South Korea and the US, Samsung’s simple, secure mobile payment service is expected to reach the European market in the coming months. In Q4 2015 SAP succesfuly launched SAP Vehicles Network (SVN) in the US and Europe with Samsung Pay as a launch partner focusing vehicles centric services such as Connected Parking and Connected Fueling.

Under this premise, SEAT, Samsung and SAP have developed a future concept that can be accessed with the SEAT ConnectApp. The plan is for this app to enable users to reserve a parking space from any location through fingerprint recognition, navigates the driver to the location and automatically raise the access gate when the car approaches. When the driver exits the carpark, payment is planned to be made directly from the app without leaving the car.  

This futuristic concept, which can be experienced at the MWC, is the result of a joint collaboration with car park operator Saba, SVN members (such as EasyPark) and Mobile World Capital. In addition, this connected car experience also forms part of the ‘Mobile Ready’ initiative,  a showcase of innovative experiences in a real city context to highlight mobile technology benefits to citizens, industry and public institutions, supported by the Mobile World Capital Barcelona, the initiative driving the mobile and digital transformation of society while helping improve people’s lives globally.

Digital Key Sharing: Fingertip authorisation for anyone, anywhere to use your car.

Additionally on-hand at MWC, SEAT and Samsung are presenting an evolution of last year’s Digital Key proposal, which was a solution for locking and unlocking the doors, turning on the air conditioning and opening and closing the windows remotely, from a smartphone or wearable.

The innovative solution this year is a function that can be accessed in future in a SEAT car, whereby authorisation can be given for another person to share  the car without the need to transfer possession of a key, even if both people are in different locations. The function consists in issuing a completely secure authorisation to another person to share the car by transferring a virtual copy of the car’s digital key to the other person’s smartphone or mobile device for a duplicate key at your fingertips.

A time limit can be set on the duplicate of the digital key. When it expires, the sharing capability ends. This app project also includes the management of  the virtual keys. In a more advanced stage of the project there is even room for configuring and restricting a series of car functions or performance such as setting a maximum speed or specifying the driving mode to increase efficiency, among others.