Hyundai Motor Company has announced plans to accelerate the development of software-defined vehicles (SDV) and autonomous driving technology through collaboration with American artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor firm NVIDIA. This partnership is expected to create a virtuous cycle leading to technology internalization.
During a Q1 earnings call on April 23, Hyundai’s IR head, Yoon Tae-sik, stated that they’re partnering with NVIDIA to rapidly process vast amounts of autonomous driving data. It also plans to leverage data from NVIDIA’s partner companies.
He added that swiftly commercializing competitive autonomous driving solutions and gaining market traction will accelerate the technology internalization efforts. It firmly believes that collaborating with external partners will not impede this process.
Yoon emphasized that Hyundai’s hardware expertise combined with 42dot’s software capabilities will remain the foundation for building their SDV framework. He referenced Park Min-woo, a former NVIDIA executive who joined Hyundai in February as head of the Advanced Vehicle Platform (AVP) division and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of 42dot.
Yoon stressed that it’s crucial to consistently accumulate and learn from driving data to create a virtuous cycle for performance improvement and mass production. He noted that Park is spearheading sensor standardization efforts to ensure uniformity in data formatting, which is vital for this virtuous cycle.
Regarding the SDV Pace Car (a limited production vehicle for technology validation), Yoon confirmed that they’re on track to deploy it on public roads in the second half of this year for real-world testing. Now that Park has established a clear direction for the SDV strategy, it’ll share more detailed plans with the market at the appropriate time.