Hyundai Motor’s Robotaxis to Debut in Major U.S. Cities within Three Years

Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and U.S. self-driving company Aptiv, will operate driverless robotaxis in major U.S. cities beginning in 2023. To that end, Motional decided to develop a self-driving car based on Hyundai Motor's platform and use the network of U.S. car-sharing company Lyft.

Motional announced on Dec. 16 (local time) that it will expand a fully autonomous robotaxi service from 2023 with Lyft.

Aptiv and Lyft have already been operating self-driving taxis in Las Vegas on a trial basis since 2018. It provided more than 100,000 taxi rides over the past three years. The two companies said their services were high in quality to the point of 98 percent of the customers giving the highest score of the satisfaction scale.

Motional plans to expand the services to other key U.S. cities and significantly scale up the fleet of vehicles. Robotaxis will be produced based on Hyundai Motor's platform.

Motional’s goal is to become a leader in the self-driving ride-sharing market. Global companies such as Tesla, Google, and Amazon are developing vehicles for this market. Motional expects that it will be the largest autonomous vehicle sharing service provider if it expands its services in earnest in the United States in 2023.

Motional was established by Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv in March. Hyundai Motor has invested US$2 billion in it, betting on future mobility. Motional is developing complete self-driving technology at Level 4 where cars drive on their own without drivers. The U.S. state of Nevada recently allowed Motional to conduct tests with Level 4 self-driving cars. In 2022, the company plans to mass-produce partially self-driving cars at Level 3 which minimizes driver interventions.