FortytwoDot Demonstrates Autonomous Driving Technology in Pangyo Early This Month
Technical Report to Hyundai Motor Executives Including Chairman Chung Euisun
FortytwoDot and AVP Division Led by Song Changhyun Gain Momentum
Hyundai Motor Group Accelerates Transition to SDV
42dot, the global software center of Hyundai Motor Group, recently demonstrated autonomous driving technology to top executives including Chairman Chung Eui-sun. Hyundai Motor Group has declared its commitment to strengthening SDV (Software-Defined Vehicle) and has been pushing forward with technology development, with evaluations suggesting that it is concretizing a step-by-step roadmap.
According to industry sources on the 8th, 42dot demonstrated its self-developed autonomous driving technology earlier this month in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, in the presence of Chairman Chung and other top executives of the group. During the demonstration, an autonomous vehicle equipped with 42dot’s demo program successfully navigated the complex evening traffic near the 2nd Pangyo Techno Valley and reached the designated destination. It is reported that Chairman Chung was satisfied with the progress of the project after reviewing the current status of the technology development.
42dot is a mobility software (SW) development company founded in 2019 by CEO Song Chang-hyun, formerly of Naver. Hyundai Motor Group made strategic investments from the early stages of the business and incorporated the company as a group affiliate in August 2022. Since then, it has established itself as a core affiliate responsible for the group’s global software center. Currently, it is in charge of overall software development for the SDV transition. CEO Song concurrently serves as the head of 42dot and President of Hyundai Motor’s AVP Division, overseeing the group’s overall SDV strategy.
The transition to SDV requires numerous supporting technologies beyond autonomous driving, including vehicle operating systems (OS), cybersecurity frameworks, OTA (over-the-air updates), digital maps, data platforms, and centralized electric/electronic architecture.
Among these, 42dot is focusing on demand-responsive autonomous vehicle services and AI-based logistics and transportation management platform development. In particular, autonomous driving has been a key focus area for 42dot since its inception. To realize highly reliable autonomous driving technology, it is crucial to reconstruct the three-dimensional environment around the vehicle in real time. For this purpose, 42dot is developing a ‘high-performance 3D perception model’ that operates in real time.
With 42dot’s successful demonstration of SDV emphasized at the Hyundai Motor Group level, there are expectations within the group that the Hyundai Motor AVP Division led by President Song and 42dot will gain momentum. Alongside this, the group’s mid- to long-term software strategy is also expected to accelerate. Since acquiring 42dot in 2022, Hyundai Motor Group carried out an additional paid-in capital increase worth about 1 trillion KRW last year. The group also reorganized Hyundai Motor and Kia’s R&D organizations into hardware (HW) and software (SW) divisions and integrated the software development sector into a single unit, establishing the AVP Division led by President Song.
Earlier this year at CES, the world’s largest home appliance and IT exhibition, Hyundai Motor Group announced plans to unveil software for SDV implementation in 2025 and apply it to mass-produced vehicles starting in 2026. To achieve this, they emphasized the need to separate HW and SW development and build an architecture that allows for individual updates. This is the ‘centralized architecture’ that enables HW control through a high-performance computer mounted at the center of the vehicle.
This architecture, which Tesla has applied since 2012, has recently become a trend in the global automotive industry. Previously, each vehicle component had its own electronic control unit (ECU) controlled by separate software, but now a single high-performance computer can control all components of the vehicle. Hyundai Motor Group plans to complete SDV technology verification by the end of this year through a modified vehicle based on the Ioniq 6 and internally aims to unveil the group’s first full-stack SDV vehicle next year.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
