Towards Software-focused Company
In the future, all customers who have purchased vehicles from Hyundai, Genesis, and Kia will not have to go to service centers to update their car software. This is because the over-the-air (OTA) software update function will be installed as a standard on all Hyundai Motor Group models to come out beginning from 2025.
This is one of the cases mentioned in software-defined vehicle (SDV) transformation strategy that Hyundai Motor Group came up with on Oct. 12. Amid the growing need for advanced software in the future automobile industry such as autonomous driving, Hyundai Motor Group announced that it would transform itself from a traditional automaker into a software developer centered on information technology (IT). The amount to be invested for this purpose alone will be a whopping 18 trillion won by 2030.
The core of the OTA service is to keep various car functions up to date even after purchasing cars. This means that the era of the connected car is coming in earnest. In this era, all vehicles sold by the company are integrated and connected through a data platform.
Personalized services can be provided by combining various big data collected from vehicles. Hyundai will also cooperate with various different industries such as logistics, shopping, leisure, and lodging. Beginning from 2023, a subscription-type service will allows car owners to select functions when buying some of Hyundai models.
To this end, Hyundai Motor Group will set up a global software center for rapid decision-making, while developing a next-generation shared platform and integrated controller for efficiency in mass production and update of vehicles. High-performance semiconductors are required to process a large amount of information collected by vehicles. This need will lead Hyundai to team up with Nvidia, an AI computing company.
By developing various applications, Hyundai will promote projects that connect mobility and smartphone ecosystems. It will open its software development kit (SDK) to the public so that various applications can be developed and released. It predicts that as data will pile up in the future, automobiles will be able to reach the level of understanding customer intentions and the context of orders.