South Korea phone camera makers are trying to get their hands on the more demanding vehicle cameras market to compensate the slow growth of the smartphones market.
“We expect the vehicle camera market to experience explosive growth,” Lee Hyo-cheol, a principal research engineer at Korean car parts maker Hyundai, said, RushHourDaily reported.
High-end cars carry as many as eight cameras to help parking or trigger emergency brakes. Camera number on this type of car can also add up to 12 if cameras are used to replace side-view mirrors, according to Mcnex Co Ltd., a smartphone camera producer for Samsung and Korea’s largest car camera maker.
When vehicle cameras reach more types of cars in the future, its sales could grow seven times from 2011 to almost $6.6 billion in 2018, Techno Systems Research said. The car cameras market will only grow with more driving regulations, like the compulsory rear cameras in the U.S. starting 2018 and self-driving cars such as Google’s.
There is still a long way until the the technology can be used on cars widely because it will have to go through strict tests including being in water for days and 1,000 hours of temperatures shifting between minus 40 degrees and plus 85 degrees celsius.
“Vehicle cameras are completely different from mobile cameras in terms of specifications,” Lee said.
Photo Credit: Kim Hong-Ji/RushHourDaily
