Hyundai Motor Group reported on Tuesday that it prepares to invest 41 trillion won (.65 billion) in mobility technology and strategic investments by 2025, as South Korea's top automaker boosts its attempts to catch up in the self-driving car race.
The program, which Hyundai said included autonomous, connected and electric vehicles, comes after the company and two of its affiliates announced an investment of
.6 billion in a partnership with U.S. self-driving tech firm Aptiv. Hyundai's plan also obtained a boost from the South Korean government, which said on Tuesday that it plans to spend 1.7 trillion won from 2021-27 to boost autonomous vehicle technology.
The government is expecting Hyundai to launch a nationwide service of fully autonomous cars to fleet customers in 2024 and the general public by 2027. This thrust is an important part of a blueprint for future cars President Moon Jae-in announced at an event at Hyundai Motor's research centre near Seoul.
The government said it was making a feasibility review for its proposed funding boost, which would probably include parts, systems and infrastructure. It said Korea lags behind in self-driving car software and key parts like sensors and chips, regardless of the country's advanced, fifth-generation mobile data network.
South Korea also said it would plan a regulatory and legal framework to assure the safety of autonomous cars by 2024. ''We will actively transition from combustion-engine cars to future cars,'' Industry Minister Sung Yoon-mo said at a media briefing on Tuesday.
The government also targets to lay the technological and legal groundwork for the demonstration of flying cars in 2025. Hyundai Motor's executive vice chairman Euisun Chung has said the company is thinking about developing flying cars, which could be commercialized well before the most advanced self-driving cars.
