, in a move that will likely help the Japanese company narrow its gap with rival suppliers in a highly competitive market.
Panasonic, the exclusive battery cell supplier for Tesla's mass-market Model 3, has been reinventing itself as a provider of advanced auto parts to escape the price competition of smartphones and other lower-margin consumer products.
The new autonomous driving system will enable autonomous driving at low- and medium-speed ranges including self-valet parking, Panasonic says.
"We know we are behind our rivals right now," said Shoichi Goto, director in charge of vision and sensing technologies at the firm's automotive R&D division.
"But we have developed key LSI (large-scale integration) chips for advanced image processing and sonar sensing that would give us major advantages, using expertise from television sets and cameras."
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The new chips need more testing and polishing before the commercial launch of the autonomous driving system, added Goto.
Panasonic has been pushing to expand its range of advanced driving-related products to better compete with top suppliers such as Bosch and Continental AG.
Panasonic established the automotive R&D division in April, transferring about 350 engineers from TV, the company's mainstay at the time, and other consumer electronics businesses.
