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On Tuesday, Hyundai Motor Group announced it is accelerating its advancements in the autonomous mobility space by deepening its collaboration with world-leading chipmaker NVIDIA. This partnership represents a wider shift in the industry, as automakers are increasingly turning to the tech world to accelerate the development of autonomous and software-defined vehicles through partnerships with chipmakers, AI firms, and software companies.
Hyundai Motor Group, made up of Hyundai Motor and Kia, has positioned this strengthened partnership as a means to drive forward progress on its Level 4 all-electric robotaxis through its joint self-driving venture, Motional.
Hyundai’s robotaxis are built on the Hyundai IONIQ 5, an all-electric compact crossover SUV. Designed to meet SAE Level 4 autonomy standards, the vehicle is capable of operating without human intervention under certain conditions. Hyundai has combined its vehicle engineering expertise with Motional’s driverless technology stack, integrating a complex suite of sensors, software, and onboard computing systems.
In a bid to accelerate its robotaxi vision, Hyundai announced it would introduce NVIDIA-powered autonomous driving systems across select models. The partnership will start by developing Level 2 features and gradually scale upward, eventually evolving to Level 4 autonomous capabilities.
Executive Vice President and Head of the Global Strategy Office of Hyundai Motor Group, Heung-Soo Kim, demonstrated the company’s commitment to the partnership, stating in a press release:
“The expanded partnership with NVIDIA marks an important milestone in realizing Hyundai Motor Group’s vision for safe and reliable autonomous driving technology. Based on a unified, group-wide collaborative framework, we will strengthen our differentiated technological competitiveness — from Level 2 and above autonomous driving technology to Level 4 robotaxi services.“
Hyundai plans to utilize NVIDIA’s existing DRIVE Hyperion platform, which will serve as the foundation for its new, integrated autonomous driving system. By streamlining its software and hardware across different levels of automation, Hyundai is aiming to meet the rigorous safety standards required for autonomous vehicles across multiple use cases.
NVIDIA demonstrated a similar enthusiasm for the partnership; Rishi Dhall, Vice President of Automotive at Nvidia, spoke on the expanded collaboration, saying:
“The future of mobility will be built on AI and software. We’re combining Hyundai Motor Group’s leadership in vehicle engineering with NVIDIA’s accelerated computing and AI to build safe, intelligent, NVIDIA DRIVE-based autonomous driving systems — from advanced driver assistance in select production vehicles to scalable robotaxi services with Motional.”
As cars become increasingly connected and software-defined, automakers are turning to AI providers and chipmakers to accelerate the development of intelligent vehicles and their advanced software capabilities, such as infotainment and over-the-air updates.
German OEM Volkswagen has pursued multiple parallel strategic partnerships with Qualcomm and XPeng, while Stellantis and General Motors have forged partnerships with NVIDIA to pursue their own AI-powered driver assistance systems.
As the global automotive market veers toward autonomy and software-forward models, Hyundai and Kia’s partnership with NVIDIA reflects a market where the lines between software developers and automakers are becoming increasingly permeable.
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