On March 20, Hyundai Mobis entered into an MOU for joint development of an AI-based autonomous driving platform with Yandex, one of the Europe’s largest Internet companies that builds intelligent products and services powered by machine learning.
The essence of the MOU is to jointly develop an AI-based fully autonomous vehicle platform and to provide unmanned mobility services like robotaxis. Starting with this cooperation, the two companies expect to expand the scope of the mutual cooperation to include artificial intelligence technologies for voice and video recognition, as well as infotainment technologies. It is the first time that Hyundai Mobis has signed an MOU with a global IT company.
Key executives of the two companies, including Chung Kook Park, CEO of Hyundai Mobis, and Arkady Volozh, CEO of Yandex, attended the signing ceremony held at Hyundai Mobis Tech Center in Yongin, South Korea.
“At a time when companies are actively collaborating with companies in different industries to secure autonomous driving technologies, it is an honor to be able to come together with Yandex, which has strengths in AI-based autonomous vehicle algorithms,” said Chung Kook Park, CEO of Hyundai Mobis, at the signing ceremony. “We will maintain a close cooperative system and exert an all-out effort in the form of enterprise-wide support so that the alliance between the companies can truly prosper.”
“Our self-driving technologies are unique and have already proven their scalability. Yandex’s self-driving cars have been successfully driving on the streets of Moscow, Tel Aviv and Las Vegas, which means the fleet can be expanded to drive anywhere,” said Arkady Volozh, CEO of Yandex. “It took us just two years to go from the first basic tests to a full-fledged public robotaxi service. Now, thanks to agreement with Hyundai Mobis, we will be able to move even faster.”
The driving platform will be configured by Hyundai Mobis by installing autonomous driving sensors and developing vehicle control software. Yandex will integrate its AI-based autonomous driving software in this platform and will perform extensive tests. The co-developed platform will be deployed in the newest generation of Hyundai Sonata, which will serve as robotaxi. The size of the fleet will be increased to up to 100 vehicles and the services will be available throughout Russia and other countries where Yandex is licensed to operate autonomous vehicles.
The two companies expect that this cooperation will maximize synergy effects, from the accelerated development of a stable, fully autonomous vehicle platform to the launch of high-quality mobility services. They both believe the MOU will build a win-win strategic collaboration relationship.
