Hyundai forges a partnership with Aptiv on autonomous vehicles

Hyundai forges a partnership with Aptiv on autonomous vehicles

24 September 2019

Hyundai Motor Group has entered into a joint venture with Aptiv to explore autonomous driving opportunities.

The venture will advance the design, development and commercialisation of level 4 and level 5 autonomous technologies, giving the carmaker an opportunity to lead the field in fully driverless vehicles. The new partnership will begin testing these systems next year and have a production-ready autonomous driving platform available for robotaxi providers, fleet operators, and automotive manufacturers in 2022

Investment structure

Aptiv and Hyundai will each have a 50% stake in the JV, which is valued at a total of $4 billion (€3.6 billion). Aptiv will contribute its autonomous driving technology, intellectual property, and approximately 700 employees focused on the development of scalable autonomous driving solutions. The business has a portfolio of advanced mobility solutions that includes perception systems, software algorithms, compute platforms, and data and power distribution.

Hyundai Motor Group affiliates Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and Hyundai Mobis will collectively contribute $1.6 billion (€1.5 billion) in cash and $400 million (€364 million) in vehicle-engineering services, R&D resources, and access to intellectual property.

Joint thinking

′The new joint venture marks the start of a journey with Aptiv toward our common goal of commercialising autonomous driving,' said Euisun Chung, Executive Vice Chairman, Hyundai Motor Group. ′The combined capabilities of Aptiv, a leading global technology company, and our Group, a global OEM, will create invaluable synergy to lead the autonomous driving landscape.'

′This partnership further strengthens Aptiv's industry-leading capabilities in the development of advanced driver-assistance systems, vehicle-connectivity solutions, and smart vehicle architecture,' adds Kevin Clark, President and Chief Executive Officer, Aptiv. ′Hyundai Motor Group's cutting-edge engineering and R&D capabilities make them our partner of choice to advance the development of a production-ready autonomous platform.'

The new joint venture will be led by Karl Iagnemma, President, Aptiv Autonomous Mobility and headquartered in Boston, with technology centres across the US and Asia, including Korea. Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv will each appoint an equal number of directors to govern the joint venture.

Industry efforts

The operations in Korea will serve as a key technology centre as well as a testbed for autonomous driving platforms. The new group has chosen to base testing here to take advantage of the country's 5G network, a key component of autonomous driving.

The partnership highlights the efforts that carmakers are undergoing to ensure they stay ahead of technology companies, such as Uber, Waymo and Lyft, when it comes to driverless technology.

Ford has acquired autonomous technology developer Argo AI, a business which Volkswagen has invested in to take advantage of its knowledge.

Meanwhile, BMW and Daimler have expanded their mobility services partnership to include the development of driverless systems.