Hyundai Motor Company has signed a joint development agreement with a U.S. startup to develop autonomous vehicles. The two companies plan to integrate autonomous driving technology into the electric vehicle Ioniq 5 and showcase a robotaxi service in Texas in the future.
Reuters reported on the 5th (local time) that Hyundai Motor Company and U.S. autonomous driving technology startup Avride have signed an agreement for the joint development of autonomous vehicles.
Under this agreement, Hyundai Motor Company will provide Ioniq 5 vehicles produced at its factory in Georgia to Avride. This year, the company will provide 100 Ioniq 5 vehicles and plans to increase the number of vehicles provided next year.
Avride will retrofit the electric vehicles received by applying autonomous driving technology. The Ioniq 5 equipped with autonomous driving technology will be used in Uber's robotaxi service, with which Avride has partnered. There is also potential for utilization in logistics businesses such as autonomous delivery services.
Avride was originally the autonomous driving division of the Russian corporation Yandex, but it was separated last year due to corporate restructuring. Yandex developed an autonomous vehicle software system in collaboration with Hyundai Motor Company in 2019.