Hyundai Motor Group is stepping up efforts to strengthen its autonomous driving competitiveness with a two-track strategy that combines global collaboration and in-house technology development. Park Min-woo, who joined the group earlier this year as head of Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation's Autonomous Vehicle Platform Division and CEO of 42dot, said the key battleground in the autonomous driving market is not technology development itself, but commercialization and expansion capabilities. He identified data competitiveness as a core task.
Park is an autonomous driving expert who played a key role in the early development of Tesla Autopilot, where he led Tesla Vision design. He later headed NVIDIA's autonomous driving perception technology organization.
He said, "The future will be decided not by who develops the technology first, but by who expands products to the market faster and more reliably, in a way that anyone can use with confidence." He added, "Preliminary research alone is not enough. It is important to bring the technology to a level that customers can trust."
Park also outlined Hyundai Motor Group's goal of internalizing its autonomous driving software development capabilities. To that end, the group plans to pursue a two-track strategy: securing commercialization experience and verification capabilities through collaboration with global companies, while also strengthening its own autonomous driving technology and Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) development capabilities.
He said data utilization will become a key competitive edge in future mobility competition. In his view, the important issue is not simply developing technology, but how quickly companies can collect and learn from data and turn it into real product competitiveness.
To that end, Hyundai Motor Group is building an integrated data system involving Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Corporation, 42dot and Motional. Based on a Data Flywheel structure that links data collection, model improvement and mass production deployment, the group aims to accelerate the advancement of autonomous driving technology.
Park said, "We will continue to advance Hyundai Motor Group's own End-to-End Autonomous Driving Model by using the vast amount of driving data accumulated through partnerships." He added, "Our ultimate goal is to secure safety and reliability through our own technology."
He also described Robotics as a key field connecting autonomous driving and Physical AI. He emphasized the importance of commercialization and large-scale expansion, saying, "Technology should not exist merely to prove that something can be built. It must become the best technology for helping people in real life."
Park also shared his philosophy on organizational management. He said conflicts between hardware and software teams, and between research and development and production teams, are natural during a paradigm shift. "What matters is turning those clashes into positive friction that helps create better products," he said.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor Group plans to hold the HMG Tech Talent Forum 2026 in Silicon Valley this September and expand technology exchanges with outstanding global talent.
Moon Ji-yeon, Sportschosun
