Ahead of CES 2024, Samsung has announced that it is working with Tesla and Hyundai on two initiatives to see the companies expand their home energy capabilities and car-to-app integration.
Samsung’s work with Tesla and Hyundai is through two separate partnerships. With Tesla, Samsung plans to expand SmartThings Energy to Tesla home products such as the Powerwall, solar inverter, or wall connector charger. This means that Tesla’s devices will likely soon be accessible through Samsung’s smart home app.
“Tesla Energy’s customers can now manage and monitor the power status of their homes through SmartThings Energy and Samsung devices in addition to the Tesla app, ensuring more access and connectivity. This new collaboration is a key milestone for Samsung Electronics in making our solution more widely available beyond home appliances,” said the head of the IoT development team of Device Platform Center at Samsung Electronics, Chanwoo Park.
Meanwhile, Samsung is working with Hyundai to expand its SmartThings platform, to support compatible cars better. The companies have signed a memorandum of understanding on the development of smart home apps that add cars into the equation. Through Samsung’s SmartThings app, users can toggle different car settings – such as air conditioning controls, window opening, or checking the charge status of electric models. This is a great announcement to hear, and here at Gizmodo Australia, we’re pretty big fans of Hyundai’s EVs (the Hyundai Ioniq 5 was runner-up to our 2023 EV of the year award), so stuff like this makes those cars an even more attractive purchase.
“This collaboration will enable communication from Home-to-Car and integrated home energy management services that are optimized for future lifestyles. By connecting the SmartThings platform with vehicles, we’ll be able to significantly enhance the customer experience in both the home and the car,” added Park.
For home solar and battery lovers (in abundance, given Australian home solar uptake figures), these new features from Samsung, Tesla, and Hyundai sound terrific and extremely useful. I’m hopeful that innovations like this will mean my phone will stop filling up with many controller apps.
Image: Tesla
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