When you buy an electric vehicle from Hyundai Motor Group, you… Get a car with plenty of rangeLots of style, amazing performance, and some of the best charging speeds in the business.
What you won’t get is something that allows you to take your hands off the wheel during a long highway trip, or handle complex city streets, traffic lights, and turns under human supervision. Given the scope of the Korean automaker’s technological ambitions, this has become a major challenge.
Keep up with the likes Tesla, Waymo And General Motors Super cruise It’s about to be Hyundai’s main focus, according to multiple recent news reports. Korea Herald Hyundai Motor Group CEO Euisun Chung reportedly visited the company’s Korean autonomous subsidiary and made an invitation 42 pointsEarlier this week, I took a test ride in a self-driving car Hyundai IONIQ 6.
This prototype is said to be used Comprehensive self-driving systemWhich means it takes raw sensor data from cameras, lidar, radar, etc., and then uses that data to train a single AI to operate the car. While a CEO visit is not uncommon in the auto industry, Korea Herald Other media say the move is aimed at showing Chung’s confidence in what the group is developing.
For now, Hyundai’s autonomy efforts seem somewhat rudderless. Hyundai acquired 42dot in 2022, but its president, Song Chang-hyun — who also led the automaker’s advanced vehicle platform division —Step down newly. News reports from Korea He said his departure may be related to the group’s limited progress in self-driving technology. Besides established players like Waymo, Hyundai also has to contend with new entrants from China, and many of them are It is quickly making its way to the rest of the worldJust as with passenger cars.
Photo by: Hyundai
Hyundai certainly isn’t completely drifting into the world of autonomous driving. It has a joint venture with automotive supplier Aptiv kinetic The standalone Ioniq 5s prototype has been tested in several cities, including Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Singapore. Hyundai supplies the Ioniq 5s for other AV services such as startup Afried And soon Waymo. The Korean company also owns robotics giant Boston Dynamics and is working to integrate more automation into its factories.
But developing an end-to-end self-driving platform in-house, with minimal reliance on external partners, is increasingly seen as key to achieving the future of mobility. (That’s the main driver of investor excitement right now, perhaps more than ever, especially with EV sales expected to slow in 2026.) In the near term, drivers have shown they’re willing to pay for it. Sign up for services like Super Cruise and Ford Blue Cruze.
On a long enough timeline, most automakers that want to move beyond just being car companies will see the need for a centralized, connected, automated vehicle platform that can power everything from individual robot taxis to fleets of driverless shuttles. Since these platforms will be mostly or entirely based on electric cars, which are better platforms for self-driving vehicles anyway, This convergence of technologiesArtificial intelligence, electric vehicles, software, and robotics will likely drive more adoption of electric vehicles in the future as well.
Hyundai certainly seems to have got that. At CES in a few weeks, the automaker said it will unveil an “AI robotics strategy” that includes a new humanoid robot from Boston Dynamics, AI learning and new approaches to automated factories. It’s unclear whether Hyundai will also make any self-driving announcements, but I wouldn’t bet against it.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
