Rolling with Native AI Assistant

Hyundai Ioniq equipped with Amazon Alexa and exhibited at this year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Hyundai Ioniq equipped with Amazon Alexa and exhibited at this year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

 

SK Telecom’s AI assistant NUGU and KT’s AI assistant GiGA Genie make their debut at the Seoul Motor Show kicking off on March 31. These products are expected to be demonstrated by interworking with vehicles displayed by Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors, respectively.

Hyundai Motor Company has formed strategic partnerships with major global IT companies such as Google and Amazon since the second half of last year in order to provide drivers with voice recognition-based vehicle-related services based on AI assistants. At present, the automaker is using the global companies’ platforms in the vehicles it is to export while working on its own AI assistant for the vehicles it is to sell in the South Korean market.

Hyundai Motor Company is planning to work with South Korean mobile carriers in developing the AI assistant for the cars to be sold in South Korea. This type of collaboration between South Korean carmakers and ICT firms is expected to have a very positive effect with South Korea falling somewhat behind in the AI and self-driving car industries and such cooperation being highly desired.

In this same context, South Korean companies that have individually developed self-driving cars and related technology are planning to form a joint R&D institute in the first half of this year. According to SK Telecom, a forum to this end is slated to be launched in April or May by its Vehicle Tech Lab, the Hyundai Motor Group, LG Electronics, Naver, etc.

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