Hyundai Motor has narrowed the technology gap with major global automakers’ Level 3 autonomous cars to just one year. Level 3 autonomous cars refer to conditionally automated driving.
Hyundai Motor said it has been evaluated to have made tremendous growth in the self-driving sector, the fiercest battle in the future car industry.
Hyundai Motor aims to catch up with Tesla in terms of the calculating speed of the integrated control system, dubbed “the brain of self-driving cars.”
Speaking at the Global Investors’ Conference, sponsored by Samsung Securities, Executive Vice President Jang Woong-joon, in charge of the Self-driving Business Division at Hyundai Motor, said the wide self-driving technology gap between Hyundai Motor and major global automakers had been narrowed to one year.
However, he said Tesla was running ahead of Hyundai Motor in the advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS), but the gap is too wide to catch up. It was the first time that Hyundai Motor publicly divulged the technology gap with its global rivals.
Starting with G90, to be released by year-end, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors plan to have EV9s, to be released next year, outfitted with Level 3 self-driving technologies on a gradual basis.
In particular, Hyundai Motor plans to raise the speed of self-driving cars on the expressway from 60 km per hour to 80 km next year. The speed of autonomous cars will be raised to 120 km per hour in the future.
Hyundai Motor disassembled a Tesla Model 3 to assess its technology gap. Tesla Model 3 was found to have 39 integrated control systems, compared to IONIQ’s 50. IONIQ 5 is to be outfitted with the G2’s four integrated control systems.
G3’s integrated control systems are to be reduced to three — body control, infotainment, and driving/parking — starting 2025.
The domain control unit responsible for body control has been developing by Hyundai Mobis, while the domain control unit responsible for driving is to be supplied by HL Klemove.
Hyundai Motor’s self-driving business division plans to raise its staff members from current 600 to 650. Hyundai Motor recently acquired 42dot, a company specializing in self-driving.
The 42dot will be charged with offering self-driving services in Korea. Motional, a. U.S. self-driving joint venture with Hyundai Motor, is responsible for the operation of Robotaxis in four to five cities in the United States, and will expand its business to Singapore and Saudi Arabia.
IONIQ 5 Robotaxi outfitted with self-driving Level 4 technologies has a blue cylindrical Lidar, dubbed as “the eye of the self-driving car,” on its rooftop and other kinds of sensors underneath it.
Hyundai AutoEver will be responsible for the “middle way” software and connected car sectors.
Global automaker and IT companies are scrambling to develop self-driving technologies, which have been deemed to be future growth engines.
Tesla announced the automaker would raise the price of “Full Scale Driving” to $15,000, effective Sept. 5. Automakers, including Tesla, are expected to raise the price of self-driving cars with the advancement of self-driving technologies.
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