Hyundai forms autonomous driving venture
Aptiv and Hyundai have announced that they will be forming an autonomous driving joint venture.
This partnership brings together one of the industry's most innovative vehicle technology providers and one of the world's largest vehicle manufacturers.
The joint venture will advance the design, development and commercialisation of level four and five autonomous technologies, furthering the partners' leadership position in the global autonomous driving ecosystem.
The joint venture will begin testing fully driverless systems in 2020 and have a production-ready autonomous driving platform available for robotaxi providers, fleet operators, and automotive manufacturers in 2022.
As part of the agreement, Hyundai and Aptiv will each have a 50 per cent ownership stake in the joint venture, valued at a total of US$4 billion. Aptiv will contribute its autonomous driving technology, intellectual property, and approximately 700 employees focused on the development of scalable autonomous driving solutions.
Hyundai affiliates — Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and Hyundai Mobis — will collectively contribute US$1.6b in cash at closing and US$0.4b in vehicle engineering services, R&D resources, and access to intellectual property.
The partnership reinforces the companies' shared vision of making mobility more safe, green, connected, and accessible by advancing the development and commercialisation of the highest-performing and safest autonomous vehicles.
"This partnership further strengthens Aptiv's industry-leading capabilities in the development of advanced driver assistance systems, vehicle connectivity solutions," says Kevin Clark, president and CEO, Aptiv. "Hyundai Motor Group's cutting-edge engineering and R&D capabilities make them our partner of choice to advance the development of a production-ready autonomous platform."
"The new joint venture marks the start of a journey with Aptiv toward our common goal of commercialising autonomous driving," says Euisun Chung, executive vice-chairman, Hyundai. "The combined capabilities of Aptiv, a leading global technology company, and our group, a global OEM, will create invaluable synergy to lead the autonomous driving landscape."
