Hyundai-led autonomous industry association to launch in October

South Korea’s leading mobility company Hyundai Mobis Co. will be heading the country’s new industry association of autonomous driving market players.

The Korea Autonomous Industry Association (KAIA) will officially launch on Oct. 13 with Hyundai Mobis CEO Cho Sung-hwan as its first chairman.

Established through a close public-private partnership, the association’s inaugural members include Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Motor Co., Mando Mobility Solutions (MMS) of Mando Corp., Kakao Mobility Corp., KT Corp., SK’s car-sharing service SoCar, Controlworks, ThorDrive as well as state-run entities such as Korea Automotive Technology Institute (KATECH) and Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute (KATRI).

“In order to develop homegrown technologies in the autonomous driving sector, South Korea must put together all relevant resources from the leading companies in each segment. The autonomous driving industry requires technological integration of not only automakers and auto parts makers but also IT, mobile and tech firms,” said Hyundai Mobis CEO Cho Sung-hwan.

HYUNDAI’S GROUP-WIDE EFFORTS TO LEAD THE AUTONOMOUS SECTOR

Hyundai Mobis, previously just one of the world’s traditional auto parts makers, is undergoing a significant transformation in its business model as a tech company. The company is recruiting experts and investing large sums of money to outperform global peers in developing self-driving technologies.

Hyundai Mobis is not only applying autonomous driving sensors and integrated control algorithms to the traditional auto parts to create new mobility systems. The company is also developing in-house technologies in the fields of recognition, decision-making and control, all of which are crucial in level 4 autonomous vehicles.

The company on Oct. 11 said that it also developed a foldable steering system, which essentially enables a steering wheel to fold and unfold itself. Hyundai Mobis added that such technology will allow more space in the driver’s seat and provide a better design experience for the passengers.

The automaker Hyundai Motor Co. is also engaging itself deeper into the field. The company said on Oct. 12 that it will set up a self-driving technology test bed at its Namyang R&D center to accelerate development and pilot testing of future mobility technologies.

Specifically, the test bed project will have three major initiatives: operation of robot shuttles, development of a control system for autonomous vehicles and construction of an autonomous parking tower.

The robot shuttles, which are fully autonomous vehicles capable of recognizing the road environment and make appropriate decisions while driving, will offer transportation services at selected shuttle stops within the site of the R&D center, using the Shucle app developed by the company.

The eight-story autonomous parking tower, set to be constructed by the second half of 2022, will be large enough to offer parking spaces for more than 600 vehicles. The tower will be equipped with remote parking pilot (RPP) technologies.

“Our test bed project at the Namyang R&D center will be a major stepping stone in offering safe robot shuttle, robot taxi and robot delivery services in the future,” said Jang Woong-jun, Hyundai Motor’s head of autonomous driving business.

Write to Byung-uk Do and Il-gue Kim at dodo@hankyung.com
Daniel Cho edited this article.