The South Korean automaker wants to produce Software Defined Vehicles, with autonomous tech on board.
- Hyundai plans to emphasize software development over the next several years, bringing connected services and over-the-air updates to all new models starting in 2025.
- The automaker sees Software Defined Vehicles (SDV) as key to its strategy over the next decade, bringing greater connectivity and services to car owners.
- Hyundai Motor Group plans to build a new Global Software Center and invest over $12 billion in the effort through the year 2030.
Hyundai is known around the world as an automaker, but now the South Korean company wants to become a maker of Software Defined Vehicles—a term widely used now within the auto industry with a new acronym: SDVs.
Just what are these Software Defined Vehicles?
Hyundai sees remotely upgradable performance and functionality in its vehicles as crucial features, and plans for all newly re-engineered vehicles to have over-the-air (OTA) capability starting in 2023, ahead of group-wide adoption in all new vehicles it produces by 2025. The automaker also plans to roll out Features on Demand (FoD) starting in 2023, allowing customers to choose and buy car functions.
Hyundai has already introduced OTA updates in some of its models in 2021, but by 2025 it anticipates that some 20 million vehicles will be registered to its Connected Car Services (CCS).
“By transforming all vehicles to Software Defined Vehicles by 2025, Hyundai Motor Group will completely redefine the concept of the automobile and take the lead in ushering in a never-before-experienced era of mobility,” said Chung Kook Park, president and head of R&D Division, Hyundai Motor Group.
Powering the so-called Software Defined Vehicles will be Hyundai’s own Connected Car Operating Systems (ccOS), developed in-house, that will rely on a high-performance information processing semiconductor by NVIDIA.
Hyundai has already brought over-the-air updates to some of its vehicles, such as the Ioniq 6.
Hyundai
One of the technologies the ccOS operating system will make possible, the automaker reveals, will be a higher level of autonomous driving.
“This year, the Group will apply an advanced Highway Driving Pilot (HDP) on the Genesis G90, which is a Level 3 technology for autonomous driving based on the second-generation integrated controller,” said Woongjun Jang, senior vice president and head of Autonomous Driving Center of Hyundai Motor Group. “The Group is also developing its Remote Parking Pilot (RPP) for Level 3 autonomous driving.”
The automaker said it is working on a third-generation integrated controller based on a high-performance semiconductor that will permit faster computing, opening the door to mass production Level 4 autonomous vehicles in the future.
Just when will we see the first electric fruits of this roadmap?
In the year 2025, when Hyundai will roll out new EV platforms dubbed eM and eS, which are now being developed under the company’s Integrated Modular Architecture (IMA). The eM platform in particular is promised with a 50% gain in range over current EVs, as well as Level 3 or higher autonomous driving capability.
The eS platform, meanwhile, will be used for—get ready for another acronym—Purpose Built Vehicles (PBVs), which the Hyundai Motor Group previewed a while back as part of its logistics and delivery push.
“These new platforms are evolving under Hyundai Motor Group’s ‘Integrated Modular Architecture,’ which will lead to further standardization and modularization of core components of electric vehicles, such as batteries and motors, while offering advantages in sectors additional to electric vehicles,” said Paul Choo, executive vice president and head of Electronics & Infotainment Development Center of Hyundai Motor Group.
Of course, Hyundai’s outlined approach to software and connected services is not new to the industry per se, with Tesla having recognized the potential of upgradeable software in cars over a decade ago and built its business around it. Later, other automakers have also gotten software religion, recognizing the potential for selling car owners and lessees new features, though some like BMW have clearly gotten a little too excited about the concept by selling subscriptions to already installed heated seats.
Hyundai plans to add more EVs (such as the Ioniq 5 above) to its lineup in the coming years, with two new platforms on the way.
Hyundai
Hyundai’s turn to over-the-air updates is perhaps not as belated as it sounds, with the 2025 target date reflecting the fact that Hyundai sells cars all over the world, including in markets where OTA updates or EV powertrains are not exactly selling points.
The company’s focus on Software Defined Vehicles can be viewed as reflection of its greater turn to EVs and autonomous technology—themes that should be very familiar to Tesla owners by now—with the aim of making all of its new vehicles part of a greater whole, with implications for big data.
If all of these plans sound expensive, that’s because they will be.
Hyundai plans to build a new Global Software Center to boost its software capabilities, and is expected to invest over $12 billion in the effort by 2030, with the center focusing on developing software-defined mobility solutions and hardware.
Jay Ramey Jay Ramey grew up around very strange European cars, and instead of seeking out something reliable and comfortable for his own personal use he has been drawn to the more adventurous side of the dependability spectrum.
Keyword: Hyundai Bets on Software as Way to Catch Tesla