Hyundai Motor Company and Kia, Technology Demonstration and Exhibition for Startups and Partners
Hyundai Motor Company and Kia announced that they held the "2024 Open Innovation Lounge" at their headquarters in Yangjae-dong for five days starting from the 28th of last month. This event showcases advanced technologies currently being developed by startups, Hyundai Motor Group affiliates, and partners, allowing them to present and implement these technologies. Some cases proceed to commercialization through collaboration and step-by-step verification.
The event has been held annually since 2019. This year, it was themed "A Time to Draw Technology into Experience." Twelve technological collaboration outcomes were exhibited, and ten future technology experience scenarios were presented. Hyundai Motor Company and Kia supported the selected startups with technology research and production costs, as well as vehicles. The supported companies participated in the event by implementing their technologies and ideas into actual vehicles or mockups for up to ten months on-site.
Employees are demonstrating independent sound field and facial tracking technologies at the 2024 Hyundai Motor·Kia Open Innovation Lounge. [Photo by Hyundai Motor Group]
The exhibits were divided into seven Proof of Concept (PoC) cases and five advanced verification technologies, depending on the commercialization stage. At the PoC stage, selections were made based on customer satisfaction, feasibility, and originality. The advanced verification stage technologies were developed in close cooperation with overseas technology research centers such as the Hyundai America Technical Center and Hyundai Motor Europe Technical Center.
Technologies on display included independent sound field and facial tracking technology that recognizes faces to provide different sounds to the driver’s and passenger’s seats. There was also technology that recognizes and distinguishes voices by speaker inside the vehicle, and a healthcare monitoring system that collects speech data in real time and analyzes voice to assess the driver’s stress and brain cognitive state.
The company also highlighted a monitoring system that can check tire air pressure as well as wear status using sensors, driving mode-responsive music that changes according to driving conditions, OLED lighting with internal graphic patterns that can communicate with pedestrians, and airless tires that do not require air.
An employee is experiencing driving sound-based music at the 2024 Hyundai Motor Company·Kia Open Innovation Lounge. [Photo by Hyundai Motor Group]
Technologies that have progressed further in development include heating paint and sensor cleaning. Heating paint can generate heat with a small current, which can improve management efficiency when applied to battery cells. Sensor cleaning technology removes foreign substances from sensors to maintain performance.
Additionally, three technologies developed jointly with affiliates and partners were exhibited: laser road surface projection, spatial sound, and rear assistant 3D screen. The company expects the spatial sound technology to enhance immersion by using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze sound sources in real time, separating audio elements and playback locations by frequency range.
Kim Jeyoung, Head of Product Division at Hyundai Motor Company and Kia, stated, "The Open Innovation Lounge has established itself as an innovative product development platform by adding flexibility and timeliness to the technology development process. We will continuously research new approaches to lead the future mobility ecosystem and discover innovative technologies, while expanding collaboration with startups."
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