Samsung Electronics will provide Tata Motors with infotainment programs as its first step into the smart car business.

Samsung recently agreed to provide the Drive Link service, its comprehensive telematics software linking drivers’ smartphones and cars to amplify the vehicle’s entertainment functions, according to Tata.

The application service includes “Text to Speech” that can read text messages, emails and weather forecasts, as well as look at schedules synchronized with drivers’ smartphone and the vehicle’s navigation system.

Samsung earlier said that applications could be used while driving.

The first automobile equipped with Drive Link will be released by early next year, the Indian carmaker said. The expected models include the Safari and Aria sport utility vehicles, as well as other segment products.

“This is in our line of philosophy to offer new features to our customers, to create differentiated product features that are relevant to the present and scalable for the future,” Tata Motors passenger vehicles unit president Ranjit Yadav said in an interview.

Samsung has adapted its information technology, showing off its Galaxy Gear linked to BMW’s premium electric car i3 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year.

According to industry reports, automobiles equipped with telematics applications will make up more than 40 percent of all newly released cars worldwide in 2017, up from 25 percent in 2013.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)