Hyundai Motor to introduce in-house driver-assist system in 2029

SEOUL, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Hyundai Motor Group plans to introduce vehicles fitted with its own driver-assistance software in late 2029, a two-year delay from its original target, and will rely on Nvidia in the meantime to speed up deployment.

A Hyundai executive said the South Korean carmaker will work with the U.S. chipmaker to deploy advanced driver-assistance systems, or ADAS, classified as Level 2+ and Level 2++, in 2028.

The change highlights the difficulties Hyundai has encountered in building automated driving software internally—an effort initially expected to debut in late 2027—and adds to worries about its growing dependence on Nvidia.

The postponement has intensified concerns that the automaker may lose more ground to Tesla and Chinese competitors in the race to bring vehicle autonomy to market.

“Our partnership with Nvidia is not about leaving our destiny entirely in their hands,” Park Min-woo, a president at Hyundai Motor Group, said during a media briefing.

Park stated that Hyundai will jointly design the technology with Nvidia and draw on data generated by the system to train and improve its proprietary software platform, called Atria.

Park, who joined Hyundai in January after working at Nvidia, has led the automaker’s efforts to strengthen its relationship with the chipmaker. His approach represents a departure from that of predecessor Song Chang-hyeon, who emphasized in-house software development before leaving abruptly in December.

Park said Hyundai vehicles using Nvidia’s Hyperion 10 platform will at first forgo costly lidar sensors, relying instead on cameras, ultrasonic sensors and radar.

Still, Hyundai is evaluating lidar for its Level 3 automated systems, which permit drivers to take their hands off the wheel under certain conditions.

“To truly ensure safety, we believe sensor redundancy is critical: if one sensor fails, others must be able to maintain safe operation,” Park said. He did not give a timeline for commercializing Level 3.

Park said Hyundai and its affiliate Kia Corp—combined the world’s third-largest automaker with annual sales above 7 million vehicles—intend to leverage their global fleet size to collect data for training their autonomous driving technology. Hyundai expects to overtake rivals in cumulative driving data by 2033.

Hyundai Motor Group is expanding its collaboration with Nvidia across autonomous driving, AI data centers and humanoid robots being developed by Boston Dynamics, which Hyundai owns.

“Level 2+” typically describes more capable driver-assistance systems designed for highways, while “Level 2++” systems are able to manage more complex urban driving, comparable to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system. Both levels still require the driver to supervise.