Step for Connected Car
Hyundai Motor will establish its first global big data center in Guizhou Province, China, to accelerate the development of future connected car technology. Big data is the basis for connected cars that can exchange information with the outside one another via smart devices and control the navigation system in real time and vehicles remotely because the data collected and analyzed can be reproduced in meaningful information. This is why the company will develop the services in China, the world’s largest car market.
Hyundai Motor announced on November 9 that it has signed a strategic alliance agreement to build Hyundai Motor’s big data center at the Guiyang International Conference & Exhibition Center in Guizhou Province on the 8th (local time), with the Communist Party Secretary of the province Chen Min'er and Hyundai Motor vice chairman Chung Eui-sun in attendance.
Hyundai Motor will set up the big data center at the heart of the Guian New Area in Guizhou Province in China, with an aim to provide connected car services customized to Chinese consumers. The Guian New Area, a special model district for big data, offers various benefits, such as land, financial support and tax cuts, to companies when they open an office in the region. Since global information and communications technology (ICT) firms, including Amazon and Baidu, are located in the cluster, it is easy for the company to establish collaboration networks with them. The Chinese big data center to be opened by Hyundai Motor will be fully operational by June next year after going through approval with the authorities, relocation preparation, and other infrastructure building.
It will collect a variety of car-related data and social networking data to develop highly tailored connected car services. Hyundai Motor said, “The Chinese big data center will set a solid foundation to develop connected car technologies and raise the corporate image as an IT technology leader.”
Hyundai Motor has opened its South Korean big data center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, in 2013, and formed a group of “data scientists” that specialize in data analytics, preparing for the era of future connected cars and building expertise in big data application at the same time. The company is also accelerating the development of the Connected Car Operating System (ccOS) in order to release a new ccOS-installed vehicle in 2020 under the concept “Hyper-connected & Intelligent Car.”
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor has decided to strengthen the partnership further with the world's largest network device maker Cisco to develop the world’s best connected cars. Separate from the agreement with Guizhou Province, Hyundai Motor vice chairman Chung Eui-sun has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins at a hotel in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, to jointly develop connected cars. Previously, the two heads agreed to cooperate in developing the vehicle networking system and security technologies, which are vital in connected cars, at the meeting at the Hyundai Motor headquarters in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, in April.