LG Electronics to Supply Battery Technology for Google’s Self Driving Car

It looks like Google is serious about pushing for a near term release of their self driving car technology.  I can see this probably being a custom option available to customers just like Ford currently has the automatic parking feature in some of their vehicles:

LG Electronics Inc. said Thursday it will supply battery packs to the self-driving cars to be launched by U.S. Google Inc. a move that wil certainly help South Korea’s No. 2 tech giant tap deeper into the automobile industry.

“We have been conducting various projects with Google as a strategic partner. Our automotive technology will now be applied to Google’s self-driving cars,” an LG official said.

A battery pack is a set of any number of individual battery cells.

Google said it will also partner with U.S. automaker General Motors Co., Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp., Germany’s Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG, and join forces with chipmaker Nvidia Corp. and German automotive technology giant Bosch as well.

Earlier this month, LG said its chief has discussed possible business tie-ups with the head of Mercedes-Benz. The company launched the Vehicle Components Division by regrouping its business sectors in 2013 in line with its efforts to tap new sources of profits. [Yonhap]