Geely Technology is to manufacture satellites to realise Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communications for autonomous vehicles (AV) in China.
China's National Development and Reform Commission issued a license allowing Geely to develop satellites at its Taizhou facility located in the Zhejiang Province.
The company expects to begin production in October with an estimated output of more than 500 satellites per year.
Geely CEO Xu Zhihao says the facility will meet the development needs of this industry, including shortening development cycles of micro-satellites, faster technology updates and more functionality.
The facility utilises modular technology, and will incorporate both the mass assembly and testing of new satellites. Satellite R&D, core component manufacturing, measurement and control, aerospace materials and a cloud computing big data platform will all be handled onsite.
The launch of Geely’s first satellites is planned for the first half of 2021.
Geely is not the only company tapping into the benefits of satellite technology. In January, Global Traffic Technologies added the Global Navigation Satellites System to its Opticom solutions to improve the reliability of connected vehicle services.
