Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Demonstrate Level 4 Self-Driving Truck... Drive 500km by next year

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors will begin demonstrations in a logistics section of approximately 500 km by the end of next year to commercialize level 4 autonomous trucks.

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia announced on the 20th that they signed a business agreement (MOU) on the 'Level 4 autonomous truck logistics transportation business demonstration' with Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Glovis, and self-driving software companies Mars Auto and Ride Flux at the Namyang Technology Research Center in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Level 4 autonomous driving technology refers to fully autonomous driving where the system responds even in emergencies and does not require a driver.

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors will begin the development of two demonstration vehicles, including one Xcient hydrogen electric truck and one Xcient, and plan to provide them early next year. Each vehicle is equipped with a customized controller and vehicle interface to interface with the autonomous driving system.

Mars Auto and Rideflux are equipped with autonomous driving systems in each vehicle. Hyundai Mobis and Hyundai Glovis will support verification operations by utilizing existing logistics routes.

The demonstration will be carried out in two sections totaling about 500 km by the end of next year. One is a section of about 100 km that mixes the highway and the city center, and the other is a long-distance section of about 400 km centered on the highway.

Based on empirical data, Hyundai Motor Company and Kia plan to advance the vehicle control technology and safety redundancy technology of level 4 autonomous large trucks.

Safety redundancy is a technology in which an auxiliary system takes over the function and maintains the vehicle in a safe state even if a problem occurs in some system. Hyundai Motor and Kia explained that it is a key element in ensuring the safety of autonomous driving of large trucks that often operate long distances and at night.

In addition, Hyundai Motors and Kia plan to secure foundational technologies that can respond to various autonomous driving systems through their own advanced development and collaboration with external companies.

Park Sang-hyun, vice president of commercial LCM at Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors, said, "Through this cooperation, we will secure vehicle control technology and operational data necessary for the actual logistics environment and gradually lay the technological foundation for commercialization of level 4 autonomous large trucks."