"Open the car door with your phone and even detect children" LG Innotek aims to achieve 1.5 trillion in sales with digital keys

[Financial News] LG Innotek has announced its ambition to achieve 1.5 trillion won in sales in the vehicle communication components (connectivity) sector by 2030. Currently, the annual sales in the vehicle communication components sector are at the 600 billion won level, but the goal is to expand the business more than twice over five years. One of the key growth drivers is the 'Next-Generation Digital Key Solution.' LG Innotek is accelerating its business expansion by securing digital key solutions to be installed in 14 domestic and foreign car models last year alone.
■"LG Innotek to expand vehicle communication components to 1.5 trillion scale within 5 years"


Yoo Byung-guk, Executive Vice President of LG Innotek's Vehicle Components Business Division, stated at the 'Next-Generation Digital Key Solution' briefing held at the Magok headquarters in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, on the 15th, "We will speed up our market penetration aiming for global No. 1 by 2030," and "We will grow LG Innotek's vehicle communication components business to an annual sales scale of 1.5 trillion won."
The core of the vehicle communication components business, the 'Digital Key,' is a next-generation car key that uses wireless communication technology to connect with a smartphone to open and lock the car door or start the engine. As the car-sharing and rental car industries grow, demand is also rapidly increasing. According to LG Innotek, the vehicle digital key market is expected to grow more than fivefold from 600 billion won this year to 3.3 trillion won by 2030.
The strength of LG Innotek's next-generation digital key solution is its 'location accuracy.' To compensate for the weaknesses of low-power Bluetooth (BLE), which is vulnerable to radio interference, the company has combined wireless communication technology (Ultra-Wideband∙UWB) that utilizes wide bandwidth frequencies in the solution. Additionally, by applying a self-developed high-precision 3D positioning algorithm using artificial intelligence (AI), the smartphone's location can be accurately detected within a 10cm error range. Nam Hyung-ki, Head of Connectivity Development, said, "Thanks to AI utilization, we were able to significantly reduce the algorithm development period and the resources invested in development by more than 50%."
In the actual technology demonstration conducted that day, when a company official with a smartphone equipped with a digital key entered a section 5m away from the demonstration vehicle with the phone in their back pocket, the digital key was activated, and a 'Welcome message' appeared on the monitor installed next to the vehicle. As they approached the front of the vehicle, the front door opened, and only when they went to the back did the back door open, accurately capturing the location. When a foot was placed near the 'Kick Sensor' installed under the trunk, the kick motion of the user owning the digital key was detected, and the trunk door automatically opened.
■"Immediately detect if a child is left alone in the car"…Enhancing safety

LG Innotek plans to provide various additional functions that enhance safety and convenience by adding a self-developed radar to the next-generation digital key solution. The 'Child Presence Detection (CPD)' function for detecting children left in the vehicle is representative. The radar immediately detects the child's movement or breathing and sends a real-time alarm to the driver's smartphone. The CPD function detects the micro-breathing of children under the age of six left alone in a locked vehicle and triggers an alarm to the driver within 10 seconds.
Nam explained, "Since existing CPD devices detected the presence of children based on changes in seat weight, they often mistakenly sent alarms when a bag similar in weight to a child was placed. However, the CPD equipped in our digital key detects the unique micro-breathing of children, which is different from adults, through radar, so the accuracy is very high."
Based on these advantages, LG Innotek plans to make every effort to attract complete vehicle customers in the future. Kim Hong-pil, Head of Connectivity Business, hinted, "Last year alone, we secured orders for digital key solutions to be installed in 14 domestic and foreign car models, and we will actively promote to North American and European complete vehicle customers to further expand orders."

soup@fnnews.com Lim Soo-bin Reporter