Hyundai Motor Group has appointed Kwon Jeong-hyun, a former Samsung Electronics executive, as vice president and head of its Autonomous Driving Development Center under the company’s Advanced Vehicle Platform (AVP) Division, strengthening its push into next-generation autonomous mobility technologies.
The automaker said Thursday that Kwon, 46, most recently led intelligent robotics development at Samsung Electronics. Prior to that, he worked at NVIDIA, where he was responsible for autonomous driving software development and commercialization, establishing himself as an expert in autonomous driving artificial intelligence (AI).
Hyundai Motor Group said the appointment will help advance its autonomous driving capabilities and accelerate the execution of its future mobility strategy.
In his new role, Kwon will oversee the development and commercialization of autonomous driving technologies, including vehicle perception software, deep learning, machine learning, and computer vision.
The appointment is part of Hyundai Motor Group’s broader effort to strengthen its software-defined vehicle (SDV) and autonomous driving capabilities by recruiting global AI and software talent.
Earlier, the company named former NVIDIA executive Park Min-woo as president of the AVP Division and chief executive of 42dot. Earlier this month, it also recruited Kim Dong-wook, who previously led wireless communication system development for the iPhone, vehicles, and humanoid robotics at Apple and Tesla, as head of the SDV Platform Development Center. In addition, Jeremy Ma, who has led robotics and autonomous driving software development and commercialization at Apple, Toyota, and NVIDIA, was appointed head of the group’s Silicon Valley office within the AVP Division.
Born in 1980, Kwon earned both his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Seoul National University.
He joined NVIDIA in 2018, working in computer vision and software engineering before moving to Samsung Electronics as an executive director in 2023. He was promoted to executive vice president at Samsung Electronics in 2025 before joining Hyundai Motor Group.