Hyundai Mobis hosts future mobility startups in Silicon Valley

South Korea’s Hyundai Mobis Co. will host a future mobility conference, dubbed Mobis Mobility Day, with around 80 experts from mobility startups and investors on Sept. 29 in Silicon Valley, the company said on Sept. 26.  

It is Hyundai Mobis’ first future mobility conference in Silicon Valley. The auto parts giant will focus on finding partners that secure innovative technologies and opportunities in new growth sectors, such as urban air mobility (UAM) and robotics.   

Hyundai Mobis will introduce its mid- to long-term growth scheme focused on transformation into a software and platform-centric tech company.

It will also emphasize that the firm’s future business strategy is closely associated with investments in promising tech companies.  

The conference is organized by Mobis Ventures Silicon Valley (MVSV), one of Hyundai Mobis’ global branches for open innovation, alongside the other one in Shenzhen, China.

STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS IN GLOBAL STARTUPS

Hyundai Mobis has made some major strategic investments in promising tech startups via MVSV, established in 2018.

In 2019, the auto parts maker invested $50 million in Velodyne, a Silicon Valley-based light detection and ranging (lidar) tech developer for autonomous driving. 

The two firms have been jointly developing a lidar system for Level 3 autonomous driving, where the driver can hand over control to the vehicle, but must be ready to take over when prompted.

In 2020, Hyundai Mobis injected $25 million into Envisics, a UK-based augmented reality head-up display (AR HUD) maker. AR HUD is a next-generation safety convenience feature that matches driving information with the road ahead in real time. 

The two companies will jointly develop autonomous driving-specialized AR HUD, aiming for mass production by 2025, Hyundai Mobis said at the time.

In January of this year, it became the first company to buy shares in Zendar at the corporate level with a $4 million investment. Zendar is a Silicon Valley-based startup focusing on high-resolution radar, called imaging radar. 

Unlike conventional radar, imaging radar uses the data generated from multiple radar sensors, thus can significantly increase recognition accuracy, Hyundai Mobis said.

In February of this year, Hyundai Mobis said it will spend up to 8 trillion won over the next three years for future mobility, UAM, robotics and other areas.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.