Hyundai Motor Group will expand strategic collaboration with Nvidia in future mobility fields such as Autonomous Driving and software-defined vehicles (SDV).
Hyundai Motor and Kia said on the 17th that they will combine their in-house SDV capabilities with Nvidia's expertise in Autonomous Driving to begin co-developing next-generation Autonomous Driving solutions.
Hyundai Motor and Kia decided to preemptively apply some of Nvidia's Autonomous Driving technologies at level 2 (partial automation) and above to select models.
In the mid-to-long term, they will build a cooperative framework for Autonomous Driving that extends to level 4 (high automation) robotaxis. Focusing on the U.S.-headquartered Autonomous Driving joint venture "Motional," they will begin full-fledged, all-around consultations to advance level 4 robotaxi technology and seek to strengthen competitiveness in technology and services.
The expanded collaboration with Nvidia is a Hyundai Motor Group-level strategic decision to accelerate the internalization of Autonomous Driving technologies. To that end, Hyundai Motor Group will introduce "Nvidia Drive Hyperion" and newly build an integrated architecture (design structure) that can scale from Autonomous Driving level 2 to level 4.
Hyperion is a reference (standard) design structure that bundles hardware essential for Autonomous Driving, such as a high-performance central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), sensors and cameras. A Hyundai Motor Group official explained, "If we add the experience accumulated by global automotive corporations like Hyundai Motor Group to the standard design structure, we can develop an optimized SDV architecture in-house."
From the perspective of AI internalization as well, strategic collaboration with Nvidia is expected to greatly help Hyundai Motor Group. Using the adoption of Hyperion as a starting point, Hyundai Motor Group will establish a virtuous data cycle that spans collecting various data—video, language and behavior—AI training and performance improvement, application to real vehicles, and further enhancements in data quality.
In addition, Hyundai Motor Group plans to actively utilize Nvidia's extensive data and AI technologies to integrate data obtained across the group into a single training pipeline. A pipeline is a computer data processing structure that handles instructions and graphics; an AI-based supercomputer can process vast amounts of data simultaneously through one massive pipeline.
In the long term, they expect Hyundai Motor Group's competitiveness in Autonomous Driving to rise as high-performance AI independently collects, learns and structures high-quality real-road data. Hyundai Motor Group's ultimate goal is to internalize top-tier Autonomous Driving technologies and deliver them to customers.
Kim Heung-soo, executive vice president in charge of the Global Strategy Office (GSO) at Hyundai Motor Group, said, "Expanding the partnership with Nvidia will be an important momentum to realize the 'safe and reliable' Autonomous Driving technologies that Hyundai Motor Group pursues," adding, "Based on a one-team cooperation system across the group, we will secure differentiated technological competitiveness from Autonomous Driving technologies at level 2 and above to level 4 robotaxi services."
Rishi Dhall, vice president of automotive at Nvidia, said, "By combining Hyundai Motor Group's vehicle engineering capabilities with Nvidia's computing and AI technologies, we are building Autonomous Driving systems that are both safe and intelligent," adding, "We will continue the collaboration between the two companies from advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) at Autonomous Driving level 2 and above to robotaxis."