LG plans to deploy webOS in cars, robotics and smart home devices

LG plans to deploy its open source platform webOS as an operating system for future devices in the automotive, robotics and smart home categories. LG has signed a new agreement with the Finnish software company The Qt Company for this.

LG says it will continue the existing partnership for webOS through a memorandum of understanding with the Finnish software developer. According to the South Korean company, this will allow it to bring webOS to new devices more efficiently. Qt will play a key role in developing webOS Auto, a platform for future in-car infotainment systems, according to LG.

The two companies have been working together on webOS since 2014, after LG took over the operating system from HP. LG used, among other things, a graphical user interface software tool from the Finnish Qt to scale up webOS from a mobile operating system to an OS that is particularly suitable for smart televisions, but also smart refrigerators.

LG released an open source version of webOS last year, aiming to bring it to more devices than just televisions and refrigerators. Competitor Samsung has about the same ambition with its own open source operating system Tizen. The company wants to make that more widely available than just with its TVs. Tizen is also there for wearables, cameras and smart refrigerators from Samsung.