Hyundai Motor Group is conducting a large-scale restructuring of autonomous driving under the leadership of Min Woo-bak, who previously worked at Tesla and Nvidia. The company hopes that the new approach will help to catch up faster against the background of Tesla and Chinese competitors, primarily BYD, writes Bloomberg.
Since joining Hyundai in February, Buck has reassessed the work of the software and engineering teams, identified key priorities, and accelerated internal approvals. According to him, the main bottleneck is not related to the lack of technology or personnel, but to how effectively the company is able to build collaboration.
Hyundai has already outlined several important milestones. In 2028, the group plans to introduce advanced driver assistance functions based on Nvidia technologies, and in 2029, launch production vehicles capable of navigating urban traffic on their own using the Atria artificial intelligence system.
To train the Hyundai platform, it is going to use data that will come from millions of Hyundai, Kia and Genesis vehicles equipped with the same cameras and information collection systems. According to the company's calculations, such a scale should give a serious advantage in the development of algorithms.
Buck is confident that mass production and sales can help Hyundai move closer to the current market leaders. He believes that the company will be able to match its competitors in terms of fleet data, and then surpass them by about 2033.
At the same time, Hyundai relies not on a simple accumulation of records, but on complex and non-standard road situations that better help train artificial intelligence systems. Buck emphasizes that the company is not going to bring raw features to the market just to accelerate commercialization.
Separately, Hyundai is preparing to test about 200 Ioniq 5 vehicles in Gwangju by the end of the year. This project will be part of a longer-term program to create fully autonomous cars of the fourth level.
In general, Hyundai's strategy is based on three areas: organizational reforms, partnerships with technology companies, and training based on real data from roads. At the same time, as the company notes, security remains the main criterion for the implementation of new solutions.